Ares looked forward impassively as Alexander began his attack. As the human's sword cut through the cloud of dust at her, she reacted without any apparent effort on her part. The arm holding her sword swung around in a tight arc, glancing Alexander's blow off to the side. While Ares was obviously holding herself back, there was a strange sort of vibration that passed through Alexander's sword at the moment of contact. It was neither enough to distract him nor harm him, but was simply enough for the adventurer to note that something about her parry seemed "strange". 

"Too many wasted movements. You won't be able to get close if you're swinging haphazardly." Ares quipped coldly. "Concentrate. See the path you need your sword to take, and move it directly along that path. Keep your stance stable, but leveraged enough that you can attack. There are going to be monsters in that place faster or stronger than you will ever be; if you don't hone your combat down to an art, you'll either rely on the coward's tactics of Cernunnos and Loki, or die. And I won't let you do the former."

[hr]
When Cran entered the Coliseum, he would see few people in the immediate vicinity. Those who were around seemed to be busy walking to other locations. Were he able to continue his search though, he would come across the open floor of the Coliseum center as well as the surrounding seats. In the seats, there seemed to be a fair amount of people eating food and chatting amongst one another. 

In the center, though, there seemed to be two people holding swords, a man and a woman, with the latter scowling at the former.