Completely unbeknownst to Robb, Henry wasn't too far away from him at all. In fact, he was being held just outside the arena in a separate chamber, given little more than a guard to watch over him and a peephole to spectate with. It really wasn't much, but it was better than nothing, he figured. And certainly more than he'd been expecting after getting drugged and taken away into the sewers again.

You'd think I'd have earned some common courtesy, being a known factor…

The viewing area was above the two combatants, rather than ringing around the sides like most fight pits. More of a mesh catwalk or grille than a spectator's booth, there were only a few half-decent viewing angles available, and the guards already took the ones that didn't involve getting down on the floor and peering through the cracks. Three guesses as to how he was watching the situation unfold.

Well, as best as he could, anyway. Some sort of spotlight hung directly below them, pointing down at the sandy ground. It had a nasty tendency to get in the way of him being able to see what was going on. The fact that the fight was currently taking place around the arena's edge was the only reason he was able to spectate currently.

Henry could easily pick out the both of them from his awkward crouch. On the one side, the practically rabid vampire was swinging with wild abandon, and on the other his friend was frantically circling to maintain distance from the creature opposing him. About thirty seconds of this kind of back-and-forth had occurred already, and the way things were shaping up, it was going to be a lot more of the same going forward. The rhythm of the battle was in deadlock, looking to him more like the strangest matador performance of his life than the near-death struggle it truly was.

And I'm stuck up here unable to do anything but watch. This had to have been here the whole time I was fighting tooth and nail in my own trial, too. Almost makes me wonder who ended up watching me…

He cheered Robb on quietly from his perch. Not that he'd be seen or heard for it, but he needed to start filling the karmic hole he'd dug bringing him here somehow.

"Come on, mate…! I know you've got it in you to beat this! After all, I somehow managed it, didn't I?"

The radio host responded with an experimental jab forward, oblivious to the words of support. His balance was off ever so slightly, causing his weapon to clumsily jerk off target as he lunged. A rookie mistake. The vampire tried to take advantage with a bull rush, but Robb had just enough space to swipe the haft out along its path. He managed to clear himself out of the way by mere centimeters.

This wasn't the first time this maneuver had played out in the past minute. It wasn't even the fifth. His approach to the situation was clearly being taken out of an abundance of caution… which, given his general lack of combat experience, was probably the correct move to make.

Henry's thought process was interrupted by the sound of a new arrival. From somewhere behind him, a familiar pattern of footsteps clicked against the metal flooring. Enrico. He could tell even without tearing his gaze away from the trial.

"At the rate things are going, this might be a while," one of the faceless cloaked figures at his side grumbled at their arriving leader. "Are you sure he can handle this? The longer the trial drags out, the greater the disadvantage for the initiate."

"I understand your concerns…" the guide responded neutrally. "But that is not my place to say. Perhaps our esteemed guest would be able to weigh in?"

Henry snorted a bit at the 'esteemed' part of that qualification, but didn't hesitate to give his answer.

"Oh, without a doubt he'll make it," he responded with conviction. "And that would go for any one of the guys that came to Walworth with me. Once they get their feet under them…"

He looked back to the fight, a small smirk playing on his face as he did.

"…They're likely to run with the chance further than I ever did."

< -|- -|- >

The vampire seemed to only get even more enraged the longer he managed to avoid it. To most people, this was a terrible situation to be in, that they'd want to avoid as much as physically possible. And if you had asked Robb about it even just five minutes ago, he would be in complete agreement with those people, too. Now, in the heat of the moment, though…

While he couldn't say he was confident in the outcome he was envisioning, it did seem fairly obvious to him that this would be his best shot at making it. If he could figure out a way to successfully apply his reasoning.

I'm not just a survivor anymore, he chanted to himself almost like a personal mantra as he sidestepped yet another lunge. There is one new trick at my disposal.

He was a Domain mage now, and he needed to stop forgetting it sooner rather than later. Late into his life it might have arrived, it was now the one skill he had remaining up his sleeve that could be of any use. The problem he was running into, mainly, was trying to figure out some way of applying that magic to fix his current situation.

It was... easier said than done, considering he'd been given the Night Domain. About middle of the road in terms of commonality, but probably one of the least well understood. From what he knew, the applications of it were generally agreed to tend more towards the esoteric than the directly practical. Wanted a way to reduce your need to sleep? Induce lucid dreaming in yourself and others? See in the dark, or not be seen in the dark? Then Night Domain worked a treat. Now, if your problem was, say… a madman right in front of you out to take your life…

Sorry, you're out of luck. Should've gone with Fire.

He grit his teeth as he summarized his train of thought mentally. I need to figure out a way to attack the vampire, with magic that can't actually attack it. That way, while it's responding to that I'll have a… very short window to take it by surprise and finish it off.

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Theirein lied the rub. How do you attack without attacking? He kept coming back to that question like a broken record, and yet he still wasn't any closer to cracking it.

His focus on the fight lapsed, just for a brief moment. Somehow, the vampire knew instinctively to use that to wrest the initiative of the fight away from him. Skittering low onto all fours, it propelled itself under his spear and swung upward wildly. Not aiming to finish him off just yet… but to destroy the structure of his defense.

The bony palm of the creature struck true. Robb found out the hard way that he was definitely not holding the spear correctly, as it sailed out of his hands and into the sand in the arena center.

In that moment, he could fully admit to himself that he panicked. His hindbrain controlled his reaction way more than rational thought, and instinctively he called upon his magic to hide him from the world. What he got was a… suboptimal result.

Shadows leaked out of his body and wrapped around him like a mannequin. But, with how bright the spotlight above was, and how little actual control he put into their formation, they didn't get much further than wrapping himself in a skin-tight barrier. He was given the unenviable choice to either back away or lose a hand, and he chose the former. The vampire jealously guarded his weapon as he backpedaled from the engagement, a window of space the vampire used in full to line itself up for the killing blow.

Attack without attacking, he repeated, frantically searching for an answer as he felt his back press up against the wall. There's got to be some way to…

His thoughts trailed off as he looked down at himself. Noticing his own shadow-wreathed hands in front of him, he had a bit of an epiphany.

The monster leapt. Snarling in berserk fury, it ate through the distance between them like it simply didn't exist. Robb didn't dare move until the last possible moment. Otherwise, it might have time to course correct.

As it propelled itself through the air, fully committed to its trajectory, he decided to make his play. He called on his Domain even further, and one shadowy form split into three. One held perfectly still, a fake designed to obfuscate his escape. One shadow ducked to the left, while the other tumbled right. The vampire crashed into the sacrificial imitation, allowing him to make his escape and scramble madly back to the spear.

His heart was pumping. Sprinting had never been common for him even after the Witching Hours, but right now he felt like he could keep this up for an entire marathon. And through the adrenaline that came with his mad dash, only one thought came to mind.

I can't believe that worked!

This was the key, he could feel it. Not an attack. Not a defense. Not even a dodge, in the technical sense of the term. It was a misdirection, one that could force his opponent to behave far more cautiously than he'd be able to otherwise, or risk being caught out by him when he really made a move to attack.

Funny how the old methodologies of magicians translated to his ability to fight as a mage. Maybe parlor tricks had their place, after all.

His other shadowy imitation dissipated as he yanked the spear off of the ground, its pre-programmed response carried out. With only his shape left, the vampire's baleful eyes were squarely locked on him again. Clearly hate filled and bloodthirsty, they bore into his masked face with a look that could peel paint.

Robb was too in the zone to even care. Let it look, he figured. He could still make more false versions of himself to throw it off the trail. Actually, now that he thought about it a bit more, wasn't this sort of how Henry dealt with his opponents? It felt different enough, but there was certainly some aspect of similarity there...

No more time to consider that, unfortunately. The vampire charged in once more, seemingly incapable of tiring despite how close to death it must be from starvation. He wreathed his spear in the same shadows that covered him, and immediately began forming a tangle of illusory images in every direction except for the one he moved in. The ones that charged at the vampire immediately were dissipated by the most pathetic flex of its claws possible, but they served their purpose.

They kept the vampire guessing. And, more importantly, offered Robb a window to reposition himself favorably enough to finally strike.

From just outside the monster's field of vision, he attacked. The spear thrust wavered in the air as he moved, but even if he was aiming for the shoulder blade, he was more than happy to take the wound to the side that he ended up dishing out. The acrid scent of salt filled the air as his weapon struck true, barely even a trickle of black blood oozing from the puncture as he wrenched his spear free.

First blood had gone to him. Provided you didn't count the occasional droplets from his hand that were still occasionally staining the sand red. He didn't, but it was still a not so friendly reminder that he should end this fight sooner rather than later.

Now that I've got the tricks I need, this should be easy… right?

The following minutes put that theory to the test. He tried a wide variety of combination attacks, finding the sweet spot between enough shadows to misdirect and not so much as to overwhelm his casting. He played different roles with every clash, sometimes even forgoing an attack altogether just to keep it confused.

Unfortunately, despite all his efforts the answer in practice boiled down to 'not really'. Sure, he got some early successes in due to the novelty of it all, but the vampire showed a modicum of intelligence and slowly began adapting to the patterns of new ability.

It suddenly got a lot more defensive in its posture, focusing more on eliminating every shade that got close to it first than committing to any amount of offense. Robb could keep up the pressure for now, but at the same time it was proving harder and harder to land any solid hits of his own. He managed a few superficial cuts, but that was it.

He had to think of something new before his mana pool drained completely. So, rather than wait for the inevitable to play out… He decided to try for something a little unorthodox.

If there was one thing he could give this terrible experience credit for, it was getting the hang of forming his Domain away from his own body. Sure, he'd had opportunities to try it out before during Martin's regular practice sessions, but this was providing progress at light speeds in comparison. He already knew that his shadows didn't have to inherently be humanoid. In fact, it was usually easier if they weren't, it was just in this case it was the most effective shape he could think of in the heat of the moment. Or, more accurately, most effective aside from what he was about to do.

A roughly circular blob of darkness sprung into existence. Shaped approximately like a lens, and positioned directly over the mouth of the spotlight, the black spot wrapped itself around the room's sole source of illumination and plunged the arena into pitch blackness. While the darkness was covering the entire ring, he used the last dregs of his Domain mana left to compensate for his need to see.

He had about five seconds before the shadows dispersed for good, at which point he'd probably be dead.

Five… Four…

The vampire clawed desperately in every direction, spinning like a washing machine with a brick thrown in the center. Robb's 'eyes' saw a white, sketchlike outline on a perfectly black background, a chalky rendition flailing away like mad in highly contrasting fury. Barely capable of thinking straight, now stripped of the one faculty that allowed it to maintain the edge.

Three…

He didn't have time to wait. Robb planted his feet a little more surely than he'd known how to going into this fight. He stabbed with a little more knowledge of the spear's maximum range. He sidestepped with just a bit more understanding of how the vampire's own weight dictated where it would move next. Nowhere near competent, or even a novice understanding… but he was beginning to see it now.

Two…

Another superficial hit connected with the vampire, whose cries were growing increasingly desperate as he slowly but surely turned it into a pincushion. He wondered what the others thought about this, not being able to see what was going on and all. Guess he'd find out, if he won. All he knew was that in the end, one of them would be on the ground dead or dying, and he certainly didn't want it to be him.

One…

Robb landed a lucky killing blow, clean through the neck of the beast. It choked and tried to pull itself free in vain, the slight barb at the tip keeping it in place just long enough for it to slump down, lifeless.

The lights came back on, and Robb came out of the fight exhausted in mind, body and soul.

But, most importantly… alive and well.

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