Ch 55: Cruel and unusual entertainment.

Noah had to admit, the level of service provided in this island, from the helpful staff to the food, was really flawless. At least it was for sponsors like him. He had seen many more while walking on the streets, and estimated that there must be several hundred guests present. It made sense that Taro Aoyama would bring people from all over the world, not just Japan, to finance all of this and make profits.

He entered the giant arena, found himself a seat, and waited. The people around him weren’t all rich people. There were also many guards or staff members, likely off duty, coming to watch.

It was also possible that some of them might be there to keep an eye on the guests, so Noah made a point to not do anything to arouse suspicion, ordering a coke and a large paper cup full of pop-corn from a nearby staff member as he waited.

The time came, and the inner part of the arena, a circular area about 200 meters wide made of a dull gray stone, changed into a grass field dotted with ruins of white stone.

“Welcome, everyone, for today’s exhibition! I am your host, Taro Aoyama! I hope you all are having a good time! Without further ado, let’s start the first match, Glacier Trident, against, Jason the Staring Gold, one of the two disciples of our Guard’s leader! May the gods of fortune be in your favor!”

The way Taro introduced the two people entering the arena made little doubt about who was his favorite, as he didn’t even mention the young girl’s name. But the pamphlet had mentioned it.

Layla Caldwell was a girl of moderate height and build, with ice-blue eyes and long light blue hair that she had styled in a ponytail, and was quite attractive. The other was a guy with spiky blond hair and an arrogant expression that Noah instantly disliked.

The two of them stopped walking when they were still far from the arena’s center, and weapons appeared in their hands, a blue trident for the Layla, and a golden bow for the other. None of them seemed to wear any kind of body armor.

Layla’s appearance reminded him of something he had started to suspect.

[System, I’ve been wondering. Rias, Akeno and all the others. They seem to be a bit older than I had expected.]

[Lilith is aware of User’s moral quirks and has deliberately arranged for all female notable characters User might have an opportunity to meet, and have an interest in, to be at least 18 years old, except for those who are much younger, to remove any ambiguity.]

[That’s very thoughtful of her. I am grateful as ever.]

Taro declared the start of the match, and Noah immediately frowned as the blonde guy, Jason, disappeared. A shower of ice arrows landed around the spot he has occupied, but didn’t seem to hit anything. With several waves of her trident, Layla tried to quickly build ice walls to protect her sides. But she barely had time to erect a wall to her right when a golden arrow flew in from her left and hit her left thigh.

Layla grunted in pain as she pivoted on her uninjured leg, and managed to deflect another arrow with the shaft of her trident. She retaliated by throwing a lot of sharpened ice projectiles seemingly at random for a few seconds, then tried to create another ice wall to limit the directions from which arrows could come. And as soon as she did, another arrow came, piercing her right shoulder.

Noah looked closely, and managed to see something. Small feet-sized indentations in the grass. More appeared and the grass in previous indentations started springing back up.

Layla blocked another arow with the blades of her trident, and it had been aimed at her right leg. The scum was toying with her!

Noah got angry, and so, he decided to involve himself, just a little. And he had just the right tool for it.

Using soul magic, Noah sent a message to the girl.

“He’s on your nine, about thirty meters away. Look for the grass pressed down by his feet.”

Layla flinched, but looked at the direction indicated by the voice in her head and quickly found the crushed grass.  She sent a volley of ice spikes, and saw new footsteps quickly appear elsewhere.

“What the hell?” A voice came from the seemingly empty air as Layla's follow-up attacks were clearly not throw at random.

Jason was confused about how she suddenly managed to spot him, but when he carefully watched his prey, he noticed that she wasn’t looking right at him. She was looking at his feet... His footprints!

Understanding, he quickly ran toward the nearest ruin, where he would be able to stand without leaving footprints on the white stone.

Layla saw the footsteps going in the direction of the crumbled wall and understood his intention. She immediately created a three meters long ice spear and sent it hurtling toward it, and when it passed near its footsteps, did something she had never done in a match before. She made the ice spear explode, showering its immediate proximity with ice shrapnel.

Jason screamed as he collapsed, becoming visible. His body sported a half-dozen injuries, including one in the inner thigh that seemed to have cut an artery. Terrified, Jason lifted his eyes from his wounds to see Layla running toward him, ignoring the pain in her thigh and shoulder, firmly gripping her trident with killing intent in her eyes.

“I surrender!” screamed Jason, and Laya interrupted her charge with a grimace. She would have loved to kill this sadistic piece of shit, but she couldn’t afford to ignore the rules. She would die screaming herself if she did.

Staff members from the arena appeared as Taro declared her as the winner, and Layla unsummoned her sacred gear’s manifestation and walked out of the arena. She needed to reach her comrades and get her wounds treated before she would grow dizzy from the blood loss. As she did, she looked at the people watching, trying to find out who had helped her.

Layla had entered the arena fully expecting to be bullied by that cowardly, sadistic scumbag once again, but with that stranger’s help, she had managed to exact a bit of revenge. It wasn’t enough to repay for all the previous times she had been tortured and humiliated, but it was a start.

Noah watched the staff evacuate the scum on a stretcher as he pondered how to deal with an invisible archer. It would be troublesome, as he didn’t have any large-scale attack, and couldn’t produce light projectiles fast enough to perform a saturation attack. And this Jason would likely be one of those he would have to defeat to fully fulfill his quest.

Then realization struck him, and he smiled. He already had a good way to deal with this Jason.

Five minutes after the end of the first match, the inner part of the arena reconfigured itself using some kind of magic array, and became a seaside port. From one side, Hisui Aozaki, the Nekomata, entered.

Noah understood at a glance that Hisui was obviously was a heroine of whatever fiction Lilith had inspired herself from. She was just too cute to not be one. She had long, waist-length hair of a green that reminded Noah of new blades of grass, too pairs of ears, human and cat ones, and small tufts of white hair came out of her cat ears. Her eyes were vibrant green, and she somehow exuded an impression of vitality and youthful exuberance.

She was dressed in a short green and white sleeveless kimono ending mid-thigh, with white and pink floral patterns, white cotton knee socks with small pink bows on top, and her arms bellow the shoulders were covered with green sleeves assorted with the kimono.

Hisui slowly looked at the people watching her with a small smile, and Noah was pretty sure that she looked straight at him for a second or two longer than the others.

Loud bangs sounded from the large metal door on the other end of the arena, and a giant Oni entered, five meters tall, with a huge metal club covered with spikes that he carried on his shoulder. It looked a lot like some SAO monsters he had fought, a red skinned, muscled humanoid with a pair of sharp black horns protruding from its forehead, and was naked aside from a fur piece hiding its crotch.

Hisui’s smile disappeared as she focused on her opponent, and just as he was about to swing its metal club at her, two more appeared, blue and black skinned, armed with similar weapons.

She evaded the red Oni’s attack with ease and stepped into his range, jumping and delivering a palm strike on his stomach, but the Oni only stepped back with a grunt and tried to swat her with his free hand. Hisui used the Oni’s body as a springboard to jump back safely, and closed in again for another strike.

By the time the two other Onis joined the fight, Hisui had stuck the red Oni a dozen time, but her attacks didn’t seem to do much, and she herself had receiving a few superficial injuries from rock shrapnel when the Oni smashed his weapon on the ground.

With two more opponents, Hisui’s got less opportunities to attack, being forced to focus on dodging, and she started growing tired. The Onis were smashing the ground so much that the immediate areas was being partially covered by dust. Eventually, she made a mistake and didn’t evade one of the clubs fast enough and received a direct hit, making her stumble on all four. Before she could get back on her feet, the black Oni pinned her down by pressing his weapon against her back. With bellows of joy, the two other Onis brought their weapons down on her.

Noah winced, wondering if he would have to ad her on his list of girls to be resurrected, when the area around the Onis started being filled with greenish fog. He then remembered about some possible applications of Senjutsu and relaxed, just enjoying the show.

The three Onis were looking around, confused at their prey’s limp body having disappeared, and they started to cough.

Barely minute later, the three Onis were writhing on the floor, writhing, and a crystalline laugh came from the roof of a nearby warehouse.

The real Hisui, wearing simple and frayed clothes, was sitting on the rooftop’s edge, enjoying the sight of the three monsters dying. When the poison fog disappeared, she deftly landed on the ground and calmly walked toward the exit as Taro declared her as the winner.

Noah was certain she glanced in his direction again before she disappeared through the doors. For a moment, he wondered if it was related to the help he gave Layla. But Senjutsu, a magic that was about manipulating one’s life force and vitality, should be completely unrelated to soul magic, and she shouldn’t be able to sense it.

Or maybe she just found him handsome, despite his late forties’ appearance. Maybe she was into older men?

Noah watched the next three matches without trying to interfere, as he didn’t need to. Two of the matches were between opponents who seemed to be on neutral of friendly terms, and while they fought seriously, they also didn’t go out of their ways to disrespect or cause serious injuries to each other. The third match was a young kid, maybe twelve years old, fighting against a giant ape with a dull metallic spear that seemed to have enough mass and inertia to rival the weapons the Onis had used.

The Arena reconfigured itself again, and turned into a forest of huge redwood trees, although whatever magic was used allowed the spectators to watch without having their vision impaired by the trees.

From the gate on the side that Noah now associated with the people from the residential areas, came a young woman with green eyes and long brown hair, advancing with confident steps. Maria Lancelot. She was of average height and seemed to have reached the ideal balance of slender, curvaceous and athletic body. She was so beautiful that she could rival Akeno or Rias, and Noah leaned forward without noticing.

Some kind of portal opened near the other side of the arena, and a huge creature appeared. It’s doglike appearance and three heads made it obvious it was a Cerberus, but it was three meters tall and ten meters long, with a wide, compact body seemingly built for endurance and strength more than agility or speed.

Once the portal closed, five smaller ones blinked into existence, and what the pamphlet had called “Shadow Puppets” came out.

They were about two meters tall, featureless black humanoids with pointy ends in place of hands. Black smoke constantly emanated from their bodies, dissipating a few centimeters away from their black body, and the way they moved was uncanny.

From the Cerberus came a deep, guttural roar, and Maria smiled. A silver sword materialized in her right hand, and she waited, watching her surroundings carefully, her legs slightly flex and ready to react to any threat.

The five shadow puppets had spread out in front of the Cerberus, and they were the first to make visual contact with their target.

They weren’t completely brainless, however, and the ones in front slowed down as they came closer, to give the others time to surround Maria. They at least could use pack tactics.

She wasn’t going to just wait, however, and suddenly charged the leftmost one. She used her sword to deflect the puppet’s right arm, exposing its torso, white another silver sword of a different shape appeared in her left hand. She pierced the puppet’s torso before kicking it away, and made a horizontal slash in the direction of the nearest enemy, despite not being close enough to hit.

Noah saw some kind of crescent-shaped energy blast being formed from the slash. It stuck the puppet before it could evade and severed it at the waist. The upper half fell on the ground and started crawling toward Maria, when a second blast impacted its head, apparently doing fatal damage.

Maria was about to charge the next closest puppet when she suddenly had to jump back, as she noticed two fireballs headed toward her. They would have impacted the position she had previously occupied, as well as the one where she would have been if she had closed on the puppet.

Marias glanced at the new threat, seeing the Cerberus barreling closer. She used her superior speed to put the puppets between her and the huge monster, and attacked the closest.

The Shadow puppets weren’t weak by any mean, being several times stronger and faster than normal humans, and being able to cooperate and not feel any pain. Still, Maria was fast and strong enough that they didn’t really stand a chance against her unless they could surround her, and two more puppet were destroyed.

Noah estimated that Maria’s speed was slightly above his own, as long as he didn’t use Stride. She was quite impressive.

The Cerberus apparently decided not to care anymore for the puppets and flames appeared within all three of its huge maws.

Maria directed an energy blast to the left head to interrupt its casting, while she ran to circle the Cerberus counterclockwise. The right and center heads couldn’t follow her movements with the left head in the way, and their fireballs impacted the ground harmlessly behind Maria.

She deftly closed on the beast flank, avoiding the beast’s sharp claws as it swipe at her with its left paw and struck between its ribs with her swords, drawing blood before she jumped back. But the wounds seemed to be shallow to Noah’s eyes, and the Cerberus’s fighting potential was still intact. Maria apparently thought the same as she kept trying to get behind the Cerberus. The two silver swords disappeared from her hands, to be replaced by a large green claymore.

Maria pointed the claymore to the ground beneath her feet, and a whirlwind formed around the blade. She unleashed the compressed air to amplify her jump and, before the Cerberus could snap at her, Maria managed to land on its back. She didn’t give it time to throw her off and drove the claymore down into the demonic beast’s thick leather and muscle all the way to the hilt.

The Cerberus roar in agony, but what Maria did next was worse. Noah wasn’t sure, but from the way the wound suddenly enlarged and blood started flying in great amounts, covering her, he suspected Maria was using the blade’s whirlwind thing inside the Cerberus’s body.

The Cerberus collapsed with another roar of pain, and died in seconds. With it gone, it didn’t take long for Maria to polish off the remaining shadow puppets. Without a slightly disgusted glance at her clothes drenched in blood, she unsummoned her claymore and walked away.

Taro declared her as the victor, and the crowd clapped politely.

Five matches later came the last one on the schedule, and the arena became a dense jungle. Like before, the dense canopy didn’t interfere with the watcher’s vision.

The first person to enter was, from his looks, Jason’s twin, the main difference between them being his red hair.

The second was another gorgeous girl with long blonde hair, large blue eyes and a curvy body.

“And now for the final and most anticipated match of the day! Everyone, The holder of the mighty Annihilation Maker, against Mason the Arbor Field, the other disciple of Master Hayashi!”

Again, the way the two contestants were presented spoke volume about who Taro’s favorite was, and Noah suspected the field being a jungle was also a sign of his bias, if Mason’s sacred gear name was any indication.

As soon as the match started, Alice’s shadow enlarged and humanoid monsters started coming our of it. Their body was pitch black, but their eyes shone with a yellow glow. Noah immediately thought about a popular manhwa where the protagonist controlled shadowy undead and stored them in his shadow. It seemed that Annihilation Maker was essentially the same thing, except that instead of using the corpse of defeated enemies, Alice could simply create them using her imagination.

Mason wasn’t sitting idle and manifested his control of plants by attacking Alice with barbed vines and shooting spines from strange fruits growing on the nearby trees.  The monsters with their bulky body managed to defend Alice from all attacks, and she created a now monster, a large wolf. Climbing on its back, she had the wolf run toward Mason.

He hid on top of one of the trees, manipulating their branches and leaves to camouflage himself, and Alice didn’t find him.

She had her ways to deal with that, however, and her shadow enlarged again. More humanoid monsters with large shields and swords appeared to defend her, and dozens of shadow birds spread out, searching within the trees in a spiral pattern.

As soon as one of the birds spotted him, a shadow monster that had been hidden inside the circle of shield bearers burst out, and Noah was surprised to see that this one was shaped like a human wielding a katana. And this one was fast. Furthermore, it moved and swung his weapon like a sword master, easily cutting the barbed vines Masan hurriedly erected to try to pin him down.

The Shadow swordman cut the trunk of the tree Mason was standing on, and he screamed his surrender as he fell.

Noah heard a distinct ‘Tsk’ escaping from Alice’s mouth as the shadow swordsman held his blade against the terrified Mason, and only breathed in relief when Alice made it disappear like black smoke.

She climbed back on her wolf, and it quickly carried her to the arena’s entrance.

Noah could see the happy and disgruntled faces of the people having made bets as the sponsors, guards and staff members started leaving the arena. There were plenty of theaters, casinos, spas and other luxury establishments for them to enjoy until night.

Noah looked at them coldly for an instant before making an effort to keep his face from showing what he really felt from them. He hoped they enjoyed themselves. Because if he had his way, they would not be around much longer.