The Rise of the Black Plain

In the middle of the fighting stage in that arena, a young woman with black hair, wearing a typical female training outfit, was willing with a resolute look on her face.

She had no weapons in her hands, as her techniques did not require the use of such a resource. In fact, people like Alina, of humble origins, generally did not learn techniques that required weapons.

At least if they had the opportunity to do that...

That's because, at the price of any of these spiritual items produced by blacksmiths, someone like Alina wouldn't have the resources to do so. And even with the new reality offered by Minos to the citizens of the Dry City, humbler people would still need to work for months to be able to buy items of this sort.

However, for these people to train techniques that required resources that they didn't have would be very problematic and delay them even further. Because of this, many cultivators did not use techniques that required spiritual artifacts.

Anyway, in front of Alina was her competitor. The soldier in front of her looked young, probably younger than her, with short hair and standard features.

He was dressed in a traditional army uniform and wielded a sword in his left hand. This item had a low-level grade-1 rating.

And besides the two, one of the soldiers was there to receive them and start the fight. He then said. "Eh, competitor Alina and Soldier Ed. Do you have any questions before the fight starts? If they don't, let's get started."

"Not." The two responded simultaneously.

After that, the soldier waved to the two and said before leaving that fighting stage. "If that's the case, get started!"

Then Alina immediately took three steps back as she prepared to activate her only two combat techniques. She had at her disposal an attack technique, focused on close combat and a defensive one, which increased the hardness and resistance of her body.

And with such techniques, also allied with her support-type skill, Alina had come up with a plan for this fight!

After three weeks of fighting at the local arena, where she had fought nine times, this young woman had a better understanding of how to combine her characteristics to maximize her performance. With that, and with the previous two days in which she had observed the fights of the competitors against the soldiers, this young woman had noticed something.

As significant as it was, in general, in terms of physical strength, the competitors were stronger than the soldiers of the local army!

And Alina wasn't wrong to think about it. After all, at each stage of cultivation, the cultivators' bodies would receive significant changes, such as the increase in physical power, endurance, speed, regeneration, and so on.

And all of this continued to be constantly improved with each advancement within the stages. However, such an event would be less significant because there would not be a dramatic increase in spiritual energy from one level to the next in the middle of a stage.

But still, there would be a general improvement. For example, in human cultivation, 90% of the spiritual energy would become a force stored in the cultivator's soul, while the rest would be in the physical itself.

This part of the soul was related to spiritual techniques. In contrast, innate abilities and natural characteristics such as vitality were associated with the power of the fleshy body.

And because of that, considering that she was currently at level 29 and her opponent was only at level 24, Alina should have an average physical strength 50% greater than her opponent's!

Of course, this 'weakness' was not something that simple to achieve since spiritual techniques existed...

However, Alina had thought of something to defeat this soldier, whether or not he had a spiritual weapon. And lucky for her, this person was wielding a sword!

...

While she had her plan firmly imprinted in her mind, the soldier had already started his move.

He had run toward Alina the moment permission to fight had been given while wielding his sword in both hands.

This soldier wanted to win this fight and gathered some merit points at headquarters. Because of that, he wouldn't go easy on anyone!

Finally, Ed made his first move, slashing the air with his sword in a diagonal motion, heading toward Alina.

Swooish!

As he did so, tiny air blades formed in a split second, looking like a crescent the size of a clenched hand.

Seeing and sensing it approaching, Alina, who had already activated her defense, made a quick evasive move in an attempt to find a gap in her opponent's defense.

'Phew, that attack was pretty strong! It looks like this soldier won't take it easy…'  She thought to herself, after dodging the first attack and remembering the danger of that blade.

That wasn't enough to kill, as they both had very close powers, and this was just the beginning of the fight. However, if that blow had hit her, Alina was sure that for her to win this match, it would be at least two times harder than it was before the exam started.

And seeing that his first move had failed, Ed frowned for a moment, already trying to attack her again. 'Let's push it a little harder. This woman seems to want to fight resistance with me…' He thought about it for a moment.

After that, Ed got even closer to Alina, using his movement and attacks to reduce her space. But, as much as they weren't limited to just the fighting stage, this young woman still couldn't move freely, given the attacks coming from different directions.

And so, Ed had made his way to her!

However, when this young soldier thought that his opponent would avoid him until the end of the match, she suddenly jumped towards him while creating a strong attack.

Pow!

A fist formed in the air, about twice the size of an adult hand, heading toward Ed's body. At the same time, Alina was making a different movement than she had done so far in the fight, running to Ed.

Seeing this, the soldier looked at her doubtfully, trying to understand what was happening in this young woman's head. 'What a fickle way to fight. What does she want to do?' He thought about it, as he already used his sword to counter the fist coming toward him.

Pow!

However, while defending off his opponent's attack, Ed had fallen into Alina's trap. At this point, she had successfully approached him when she used one of her hands to hold one of his arms tightly while the other gripped the sharp part of the sword.

"Eh?" He exclaimed in shock.

At this point, he felt pressure on his left arm, which Alina was squeezing tightly. "Let me go!" Ed exclaimed, trying to free himself at the same time as trying to push her back.

It wasn't hurting this young soldier's body, as his defensive technique significantly strengthened the strength of his skin. However, he also couldn't move Alina's hand.

Disintegrate!

And while the audience watched with curiosity, the distinctive style of Alina, something that shocked them a lot, happened in the blink of an eye.

The black-haired girl seemed to be trying to impede her opponent's movements by trying to immobilize him. As for Ed, he struggled to free himself from her hand. And while they were doing that, in less than three breaths, this soldier's sword blade turned into a trail of dust!

"What?" Ed yelled aloud when he finally felt the weight of his sword suddenly lessen. He looked at her and widened his eyes in utter shock. 'Shit!'

Pow!

After that, Alina didn't give her opponent time, as she began to make a series of moves, punching in the direction of her opponent's abdomen and face.

Pow!

After losing his spiritual weapon and being without the means to attack, and with a bit of mental damage to his confidence, Ed could not defend himself against Alina for long. Finally, after just another 30 seconds, the level 24 soldier fell unconscious to the ground, exhausted, and with several injuries to his face and abdomen.

Alina had won!