Chapter 700: Bets (1/2)

Chapter 700 Bets

“Here you go, all on Lilith,” Ilea said and took off her bracelet. She funneled in seven hundred gold coins, leaving seventy just in case. “How do I allow you to access it?”

“Need to touch me, then connect the mana flow with me,” he said.

She did as he said, the process mostly intuitive before she handed him the bracelet.

The dwarf rushed off as Grat the Destroyer greeted his rabid fanbase. He held up his mace to roaring cheers before he slowly turned towards his opponent.

Verena had left the shoulder, now standing next to Ilea. “So Class level is taken into account.”

Ilea nodded. “Seems like it, yeah. Can’t wait to find out who my opponent is. Kinda want to go against Pierce but she’d just leave her armor behind and annoy the shit out of me until I did the same.”

“You’re learning. Good,” Verena mused and sipped on her drink.

The dwarf returned thirty seconds later and handed back the now empty bracelet. “Back in time,” he murmured.

“Thanks,” Ilea said. “How are the odds anyway?”

“Ten to one,” Bralin said with a smile.

“They can pay that out if I win?” she asked, her brow raised.

“No. Probably not. But you’ll be able to get treasure, housing, or just debt with culminating interest,” he said.

Ilea nodded to herself as she watched Grat walk towards the Elder, each slow step menacing and supported by the cheers of hundreds.

Pierce seemed to be done with the games and raised her sword, a dozen floating bolts of lightning forming around her as she took flight, armor and all. Her speed wasn’t as ludicrous as without all the weight but compared to the large machine of her opponent, it hardly mattered.

She rushed towards him and slowed, moving to the ground where she landed with bent knees. Her bolts impacted the heavy armor, scorching a few bits as lightning dissipated.

Gravity, of course, Ilea thought.

Pierce had stopped entirely, her armor shaking lightly as she struggled to look up at her opponent.

Grat stepped closer and raised his mace. “Goodbye, Dragonkiller,” his voice resounded, the weapon coming down, pulled by gravity magic.

The woman stepped aside right when the mace impacted the ground, her movement still slowed but fluid. Stone was cracked and broken, bits and pieces flying out. Pierce touched the metal weapon with her armored hand. “Just kidding,” she said as lightning flared up around his mace, the energy traveling up and towards the large machine’s arm.

He let go before it reached him, taking a step back as Pierce advanced on his legs.

She evaded a stomp and cut into the steel with her blade. Flashes of lightning flared up, her laughter resounding as she increased the frequency of her strikes.

“I thought you were the berserker,” Ilea mused, watching the elder strip away steel from the machine’s leg bit by bit.

The crowd had calmed down, murmurs and complaints audible with a few now much louder cheers. Bralin was one of them, his voice bellowing through the vicinity, mixing in with the mad laughter of Pierce.

The leg nearly came off when the massive machine reached down with two swiping arms. He grabbed the smaller war machine and started pressing down, magic near visible around his grip.

Bad idea, Ilea thought as Pierce quieted down.

The Dragonkiller made her sword vanish, her arms restrained as she tilted her head to the side. Then her entire armored form burst into bright blue lightning. She pushed aside the hands holding onto her, the large war machine staggering back a step. Pierce raised her arms, all the energy around her now coursing through her own armor, bits of steel fell off, her entire form slightly squished by the gravity magic of her opponent. She raised her arms and brought them forward, a flash of blue light flaring up in a beam of lightning that cut into the chest of the large war machine.

She shrugged her shoulders, more pieces falling off. She flicked her wrist with sword in hand, lightning once more flowing through the steel as she advanced on the damaged machine. A single powerful strike severed the last bit connecting his leg to the foot. Pierce jumped on top of her falling foe and raised her sword towards the machine’s neck.

Grat raised both arms in response, one pierced by the sword and the other grabbing one of Pierce’s armored legs. Lightning coursed through him as he brought her war machine down on the stone ground. He flicked his wrist to get rid of the sword, the blade clattering to the floor as he turned around, unable to stand up due to his missing leg. He still held on to the lightning charged war machine. Raising his arm, he proceeded to slam her down into the ground. Again and again, more bits and pieces flying off.

Ilea looked to his shoulder and smiled. That probably won’t make you very popular, she thought, seeing the smiling Elder watch as her war machine got reduced to a crangled mess.

The woman waited until the large machine had worked down the stolen armor to an empty husk of bent and broken steel. She jumped up to his head and ripped the thing off with her bare hands. Lightning charged as he raised his arms, letting go of her armor’s remains before a bright burst of lightning burned down into the insides of his war machine.

Pierce stepped back onto his nape as the thing came crashing down with a loud clatter. She hopped off to boos and cheers alike. The woman grabbed the remains of her armor and dragged it along before she bent down and raised the massive sword without issue. She smiled as it once more flared up with bright and crackling lightning. Her armor vanished into her storage before she hefted the massive sword with both hands.

The crowd shouted obscenities as she proceeded to cleave off chunks of her enemy’s armor, with all the grace of an experienced butcher. Her sword vanished too before she reached into a cut open section and dragged out the body of Grat himself, a large and muscly dwarf. She threw him aside and raised her fist in triumph.

Bralin grinned, the show apparently just enough to change the overall mood of the crowd.

Healers jumped down to check the dwarf but Ilea had already made sure he was fine. They were in range of her dominion after all. And as it turned out, Pierce could be surprisingly moderate in her application of magic.

“She did well,” Bralin said.

“Her war machine was thrashed,” Ilea mused.

“Yes. It added to the show,” the dwarf said. “I might even get my winnings.”

All about the show, hmm?

The announcer started up again about ten minutes later.

“And now for another spectacle. A newcomer to the arena, one taking the name of a southern myth from human lands. Lilith herself,” the speaker said.

Most everyone just talked amongst themselves, sharing what they had heard or thought her to be.

Ilea couldn’t hear a single conversation suggesting that she was the one to fight the Soul Wardens. Just that hard to believe hmm?

She stood up and downed the rest of her ale. The jug vanished as she cracked her neck.

“Do you want to know anything about your opponent?” Bralin asked. “You just bet a ridiculous sum of gold on winning.”

“If they manage to beat me, they deserve the gold,” Ilea said and vanished. She summoned her armaments in the split second she appeared in. A few observant watchers would’ve surely spotted her hooded form but she didn’t much care. After this fight was over, the name of Lilith would likely spread one way or the other. And she planned to somehow get the Taleen key through these arena battles. Just gotta win until I beat the current Champion. That should do it.