"We shall see," Dribb replied, resting the axe over his shoulder as the crowd erupted immediately after the brief exchange, loud howls and excited shouts spreading throughout the settlement almost instantly.

The atmosphere shifted completely.

The hostility from earlier had almost vanished now, replaced by the kind of excitement only goblins could generate when violence became entertainment.

Even I was interested in seeing how this would play out.

The others wanted to know what Caius’ people were capable of, while the newcomers clearly wanted to measure the strength of the clan they had just joined, so in a way, both sides were getting exactly what they wanted out of this.

As the noise continued rising around us, I was just about to signal the start of the fight when Caius suddenly stepped forward and approached me.

"Why don’t we make the battlefield a little more suitable for their battle?" he suggested calmly.

I glanced at him.

"What do you mean by that?"

Instead of answering immediately, Caius gestured toward Doro.

The massive goblin stepped forward without a word before lowering one large hand against the ground, and almost instantly, the earth beneath Dribb and Kharos began shifting violently.

Stone and packed soil rose upward in a circular formation, lifting both of them several feet off the ground as the surrounding dirt compressed and hardened into a raised arena-like platform.

The crowd immediately erupted again.

Dribb was visibly caught off guard for a second by the sudden elevation beneath his feet, instinctively adjusting his stance as the platform finished rising, but the moment he saw the calm, slightly cheeky expression on Kharos’ face, his own composure returned just as quickly.

A smug grin spread across his face in response.

The atmosphere between them immediately sharpened.

Doro finally pulled his hand away from the ground, and silence slowly settled over the crowd as everyone stared at the newly formed arena.

The two of them now stood alone atop the raised platform, separated from the rest of us as though the battlefield itself had acknowledged the duel.

I genuinely couldn’t help the reaction that escaped me.

Watching an actual arena rise out of the ground in the middle of the settlement was far more dramatic than I expected.

"Oh... that’s actually pretty convenient."

"It gets better than that," Caius said calmly from beside me. "One of the Manacore Garnets can be linked to the structure to form a temporary barrier around the arena itself, allowing those inside to fight seriously without forcing everyone outside the arena to risk getting caught in stray attacks."

My eyes narrowed slightly at that.

"That’s possible?" I asked, genuinely surprised by that revelation, though a problem immediately came to mind right after.

"You do realize I don’t exactly have an unlimited number of garnets, right? I’d rather not waste one on something like this."

Caius shook his head almost immediately.

"You do not need to use every garnet to reinforce the clan walls, Chief. Back in my former clan, I only used seven despite our territory being significantly larger than yours."

I raised a brow at that, unable to completely hide my surprise.

"Seriously?"

That was... honestly, far fewer than I expected.

If what he was saying was true, then I had been massively overestimating how many garnets were actually required to maintain the barrier system.

"You can also remove the garnet whenever you want," Caius added. "Once the connection is severed, the structure simply loses the barrier effect. There is no permanent consumption involved."

Well...

That completely changed things.

Caius then gestured toward the lower side of the raised platform, where Doro had intentionally left behind a small socket-like indentation near the base, clearly designed for a garnet to be fitted into it.

I didn’t see any reason to hesitate. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

If the barrier worked the way Caius described, then this was also the perfect opportunity to test it firsthand.

I walked over immediately, pulled one of the Manacore Garnets from my inventory, and placed it into the opening Doro had left behind.

The moment the garnet settled into place, a system notification appeared before me.

[Would you like to use a managarnet on this structure?]

"Yes," I answered without delay.

Almost instantly, the garnet locked into the stone with a low vibrating hum, and thin streams of glowing energy spread outward through the arena like veins running beneath the surface.

Then the barrier formed.

The process happened so smoothly that several goblins didn’t even realize what was happening until the dome had already closed completely above the arena

A translucent dome of energy expanded upward from the edges of the platform before sealing completely above the arena in a massive spherical shape, surrounding both Dribb and Kharos.

Several goblins near the front instinctively stumbled backward in alarm at the sudden appearance of the barrier, while others stared upward with wide eyes as the surface of the dome shimmered faintly beneath the light.

I honestly couldn’t blame them.

Even I had to admit it looked impressive.

"This," I said loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear, "is the same type of barrier that will eventually surround our entire clan once the walls are fully completed."

That explanation alone immediately calmed a good portion of them down, and the fear from earlier slowly shifted into fascination as they began staring at the dome with far more interest than caution.

"Whoa..."

"Wooow!"

Several goblins let out audible gasps of amazement, while a few others cautiously approached the barrier and began knocking against its surface with their fists to test its sturdiness.

The translucent dome barely reacted.

Other than Caius and the goblins that came with him, none of the others had ever seen anything remotely like this before.

Honestly...

Neither had I until recently.

"With this protecting the settlement," I continued, glancing around at them, "ordinary enemies won’t be able to force their way inside unless we allow it."

That statement visibly excited them even more. Some of them staring at the dome like they had just witnessed divine magic.

For goblins who had spent most of their lives surviving through hiding, fleeing, or scavenging, the idea of having an actual fortified territory that enemies couldn’t casually invade was probably difficult to even imagine properly.

But before the excitement could completely derail the gathering, I shifted my attention back toward the arena.

"Now then..." I said, raising my voice slightly. "Back to the battle."

The crowd immediately erupted again.

I pointed toward Dribb first.

"Contestant number one, Dribb the Raging Berserker. Are you ready?"

Dribb grinned widely, tightening his grip around the handle of his axe as flames flickered faintly around the weapon’s edge.

"For a fight, Chief..." he replied confidently. "Always."

The crowd howled in approval.

Dribb fed off that reaction immediately, his grin only widening further beneath the noise.

I then turned toward the other side of the arena.

"Contestant number two, Kharos the Blood Berserker. Are you ready?"

"Ready?" Kharos repeated with a grin, staring directly at Dribb from across the arena with the same irritating confidence he had been carrying since earlier. "I’ve been ready."

The atmosphere inside the barrier immediately grew heavier after that response.

Both of them were already gripping their weapons properly now, their earlier casualness fading as the reality of the fight settled in.

"The rules are simple," I said firmly, making sure both sides heard me clearly. "Anything goes... but neither of you is allowed to kill the other."

Dribb snorted loudly at that.

"That might be difficult, Chief..." he admitted while rolling his shoulder and adjusting his grip on the axe. "But I’ll try."

Kharos didn’t seem nearly as concerned.

"Fine by me," he replied casually.

Beside me, Narg leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice enough that only those near him could properly hear.

"Isn’t this a little too extreme?"

"Extreme?" I shook my head. "No. Especially not when we now have a healer capable of handling injuries that would’ve been impossible for us to deal with before."

Sheera, upon hearing that, shook her head once again, looking genuinely unable to believe her healing abilities were already being treated as justification for letting two berserkers nearly cripple each other for entertainment.

"Without further ado," I announced loudly, raising my hand with visible excitement as the crowd immediately began roaring again. "Let the fight begin!"

The moment the words left my mouth, Kharos exploded forward.

The sheer burst of speed caught several goblins off guard instantly, his feet tearing into the arena floor hard enough to crack the packed earth beneath him as he shot straight toward Dribb with terrifying momentum.

But Dribb didn’t retreat.

The moment Kharos entered striking range, flames erupted violently around Dribb’s body in a sudden explosion of heat, the burst so abrupt that even the air around the arena distorted slightly from the temperature shift.

BOOM!

The collision of fire and force sent a shockwave across the platform.

Several goblins outside the barrier flinched instinctively despite knowing the dome would protect them.

Inside the arena, Kharos pushed directly through the flames without slowing, his grin widening almost immediately as if the violent resistance only excited him further.

And Dribb...

Dribb started laughing.