The audience couldn't see much of the fight from outside of the forest, so they could only infer things from the sounds they heard.
It was the swordsman's fight that came to a conclusion first. It appeared that the tiger became afraid. It decided to escape, so the man chased after it. This caused the fight to move deeper and deeper into the green forest.
As for Lady Vena's fight with the Python, it appeared that the Python had no intention of running. The two of them fought for up to ten minutes.
Fights at the second mortal coil usually don't last long because of the intense energy requirements. Those at the second mortal coil have a lot of power, but it comes at a great cost to their stamina.
Body refiners practically burn their stamina for more power. That's the source of their great force. So if they can't defeat their enemy quickly, they either escape for their lives or give up chasing.
In an equally matched fight, it is rare that beasts run out of stamina first. Beasts usually have a stronger body and more stamina than humans. Humans also have their advantages. They have smaller sizes, so they are usually faster than beasts, accelerate faster, and use their stamina more efficiently.
The advantages of beasts mean that it is rare that they give up first. They have a lot of stamina, so it is humans that usually run out of stamina and have to give up.
The main situation where a beast gives up first is if the human is much stronger than the beast. So the beasts are escaping for their lives, not giving up on the fight because of their lack of stamina.
But the advantage of humans means that if a beast gives up first, it is unlikely that they will be able to escape. Since a weaker human is usually faster than a beast stronger than it, a stronger human will definitely be able to catch up and kill a beast that it is stronger than.
So it came as a surprise that the swordsman retreated in failure. He came out of the forest more disheveled than when he went into the forest.
Arthur couldn't see his face, so he couldn't tell what he was feeling. The man also didn't say anything about his failure. He just left quietly.
Arthur didn't know if he should be angry that the man wasted the opportunity he gained using the lives of his student or if he should be happy that the man failed. He was indecisive about what to feel, but he couldn't help the smile that crept to his lips.
Apparently, his face was more honest about what to feel. What he felt was glee because of the man's wasted efforts.
Lady Vena came out of the forest soon after, dragging a large python with a head that reached her knee even though it was lying on the ground. It is a python that is capable of swallowing boars that are five times her size. Yet, she managed to kill it.
It didn't look like it was easy. She was bruised and had cuts all over her body.
Her clothes had been shredded in many places. This revealed the metallic body armor she was wearing beneath her dress.
The armor was in the shape of a vest. It protected only her torso.
The protection of the armor was limited, but it came with the advantage of not hindering her movement too much. Besides, she didn't need armor to protect herself most of the time.
As long as she had her life force, she would be able to harden her flesh into stone. So the armor was limited in purpose and range.
However, it appeared that even this limited job of the armor was difficult for it to do because it was dented in many places. The dents looked like they had been created by something large smashing against the armor.
All in all, her condition was better than the python she fought. She was still intact while the python was dead. It is clear who got the better end of the deal.
The sight of her dragging over the giant python attracted the attention of a lot of people. They saw that there was a black spear stuck in the python's skull through one of its eyes.
Arthur approached her and touched the python. There were many people who wanted to do so, but he was the only one who dared to do so.
When he touched the python, what he felt was not flesh and blood. The scales of the python were cold and hard like metal.
He knocked on the scale, and it made a clanging sound like that of metal. He tried to scratch the scale with one of the fragments of his giant sword. But the fragment failed to leave a scratch.
He refused to believe it and pressed the fragment against the scale with all of his strength. Then he scratched the scale again.
What happened was that the fragment left a trail of metal across the scale. It was because it was eroded by the friction between it and scale. It wasn't the scale that was scratched.
He was impressed with what he saw. He said, "Wow."
He was more impressed when he saw gorges in the body of the python. These were deep injuries that penetrated the protective scale and reached the flesh below.
What impressed him about these injuries was that they didn't look to have been made by a spear. They looked to have been made by a clawed hand.
He knew who possessed this clawed hand. So the way he looked at his mother changed.
She smiled at him and said, "Are you impressed?"
He nodded eagerly. The sight made her laugh in pride.
She came beside him and grabbed at the python with her hand. He saw her hand glow with a red color before it struck the scales of the python.