I stretched my arms and legs as I got ready for my turn in the arena.
I was the last one scheduled to fight for that day and because I was a last minute addition, there were understandably fewer people left inside the hall.
The booker guy was also watching and he seemed to be pretty confident of himself.
I did not need to be a genius to know that he probably pulled some strings to try and lower my chances of winning this fight.
Unless he lied about the Steel Minotaur being the strongest monster this arena had left, it should not be a problem for me anyway.
“For our last bout today, we have a mysterious contender who is also competing for the first time tonight! She’s also accepted the challenge to fight barehanded! Will we see another surprise tonight or did she bite off more than she can chew?!”
The gates in front of me lifted up and that was my cue to enter the arena.
Stepping out, there were a few shouts of surprise as some of them undoubtedly recognised me from my interaction with both the booker and those ruffians just now. The booker was also just as surprised to see me there but his surprise quickly turned into smug satisfaction.
Yeah, he probably expects me to lose and die here so he would not have any more problems.
Well, this will teach him not to underestimate people anymore.
On the other side, the gates also slowly slid open and my opponent took a step into the arena and revealed itself.
It was… A goblin.
Ok, it was not a normal goblin, since this one was about the same size as that Steel Minotaur from earlier and definitely different from all the other goblins I’ve seen in the past.
Unlike the minotaur though, this one was wearing plate armour and even had a tower shield with a club almost as long as it was tall.
I narrowed my eyes and used my [Screened] on it.
[Name: Demonic Goblin Enforcer
Stats:
250 Strength
120 Dexterity
240 Endurance
100 Magic
Skills:
Leadership (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Club Proficiency (Tier 2), Shield Proficiency (Tier 2))]
Ok… At least he was truthful about the monster being weaker but the fact that this monster was armed and armoured arguably made this monster a little harder than the minotaur.
Furthermore, I was expected to fight this guy with my bare fists too.
I’m pretty sure if it was just a normal person in my position right now, there was no way they were surviving this encounter. I could already see the booker smiling in satisfaction up there with the crowd.
Thankfully, I was not a normal person.
I settled into my combat stance and got ready to fight this oversized goblin.
The goblin let out a roar before slamming his tower shield on the ground and advanced towards me, the shield making metallic screeching sounds while being dragged along the floor.
The crowd started to go wild with cheers and shouts.
“I’m going to get my money back!”
“Hell yeah! That will teach that bitch to set us up like that!”
“I’m going to be rich now!”
“Smash her!!”
“Smash and rape her!”𝒐𝓋𝓛xt.𝒸𝞸𝔪
“Give us a good show!!”
“Smash that stupid goblin up, sister Aster!!”
“You look sexy, Aster!!”
I don’t even need to look to know who the last two were.
Alright, I guess I’ll just give them a show to remember, just probably not the one they expected.
I was not going to sit around and wait for the goblin to reach me so I leapt forward and did a jump kick on his shield.
It turns out the shield was not even that strong as it caved in from my kick while sending the goblin flying back from the blow.
The goblin rolled on the ground before crashing into the wall, instantly causing the previously boisterous arena to settle down into silence.
Just from that display alone, it was clear how the power dynamics looked like in this fight.
But either because it was a monster or because of the fact that it was being controlled, the goblin did not show any signs of fear and merely stood back up to raise its dented shield again. There was even an imprint of my foot on its surface too.
It then continued its advance towards me with its dented shield.
Seriously, you look ridiculous with that, but I guess it doesn’t care about aesthetics huh?
This time, I let it get close enough to me that it actually tried to swing at me with its club. In response, I punched my fist at it and the wooden weapon shattered into splinters with a single blow.
I then followed up with a spinning kick to the shield and the top half of it snapped off from the blow, leaving only the bottom half still attached to his arm.
The goblin tried to swing its fist at me in response but I easily ducked under the blow, allowing me to get past his guard and punching him in the abdomen and leaving an imprint of my fist in the armour.
He gasped as the air in his lungs was forced out from the impact, causing him to sink to his knees.
That put him in the perfect position for me to pull back and deliver another punch straight to his head, knocking him crashing flat on his back while his helmet flew off his head.
I then leapt on top of the monster and tried to rip the broken shield out of his arms.
Unfortunately, the shield seemed to be attached to his arms via tightened straps so it wasn’t budging.
The goblin tried to grab me with his other hand and I had to smack it away and give its chin a good kick to stun it for a moment.
Feeling a little annoyed now, I braced my foot against his arm and held the bottom part of the shield, pulling back to bend the metal until it snapped off.
The goblin was just in the process of trying to get up when I raised the broken shield and stabbed the sharp end of it at his unprotected neck.
He thrashed around in pain and his flailing arms almost smacked me off so I grabbed both arms and gave them a good kick each, snapping both the bones in them easily.
Even with that, the goblin still continued to thrash around while it was bleeding out.
I didn’t like how slow it was dying so I went up and pulled out the shield from its neck only to impale it back in again.
The goblin gurgled but still refused to die, thus I pulled it out again and lifted it overhead to slam it back down on the goblin’s neck one more time.
This time, the goblin’s head was cut clean off and the body soon stopped moving while its blood gushed out from the decapitated neck.
There were some cheers but the loudest of them obviously came from Lisa and Odeta, the former even whistling while waving at me enthusiastically.
I tossed the broken shield aside and simply accepted my win with a wave before leaving through the gate that I entered the arena from.
I did notice that the staff started looking at me weirdly for some reason, did they also bet against me or something?
Deciding that it wasn’t worth my time to find out why, I simply walked past them and returned to the spectator area of the arena.
Katsuki, Odeta, Lisa and Sebastian were there to receive me.
Odeta rushed up to me and gave me a bear hug, “That was so good, sister Aster! The way you beat that goblin was so cool!”
Katsuki also bowed her head, “It was very refreshing to watch, Mistress.”
Sebastian also agreed, “Indeed, young Mistress. Your fighting form was quite beautiful.”
And of course, Lisa also had her own comments as she sidled up to me and whispered, “Watching you made me wet and hard, Aster… Do you think we can go somewhere private later?”
Before I could answer any of them however, someone cleared his throat and we turned to see the booker standing there with a clearly unhappy expression on his face.
I was fully expecting him to give some other excuse or another challenge to weasel his way out of paying me but surprisingly, he dug his hand into his pocket and fished out two large silver coins.
“Congratulations on your victory, missus… Here are your winnings… If you intend to join our little activity again, do let me know.”
He then turned and marched off without another glance back.
Huh… Well that was easy? Now I’m a whole two thousand Creas richer. That’s a lot of money!
In fact, I even think this was already enough for me to set off on my journey when the time comes as well!
What made today even better was the fact that I would be going to find Emilia later for my daily sweets too! I already can’t wait!