Chapter 266 (1/2)

Black Spear sneered at Azriel. “Hmph, get the fuck out of my way, or die just the same. It makes no difference to me. Hehehe, in what sort of world would one of the Great Pillars listen to some uppity bitch from the trashy North? Do you know who you are fucking with?”

Azriel leveled her spear. “Oh no, you are right. Now that I’ve thought about the consequences… I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed.”

Randidly sighed and readied his own stance. He had long grow used to Azriel’s extremely dry sarcasm. It would not win her any hearts, but it at least made her next move predictable. She blurred, rushing toward Black Spear. Randidly activated Phantom’s Embrace and followed. It would be preferable if he could stay in the back and use spells to support her, but…

Inspiration had left his mana pool as dry as a mummy’s throat. Or as Azriel’s humor.

Brown Spear seemed the more capable of the remaining two, so Randidly moved to superimpose himself between him and Azriel. Black Spear met Azriel with a roar, raising his spear and flourishing it.

Brown Spear moved more slowly, but his spear strokes were oddly misleading, and it was extremely difficult to get a good sense of his tempo. Against Randidly’s better judgement, once, twice, three times clashed, all three times Randidly had his teeth jarred and was pushed back. But strangely, the spear in Randidly’s had possessed a strange resiliency and strength that enabled him to just barely hold out. Apparently this spear core wasn’t so bad as a spear by itself.

But the difference in technique was swiftly showing itself. Randidly would conservatively estimate that all of Brown Spear’s skills were at the 150 Level, which was a daunting fact. His stats were probably high for his level too, but were perhaps only a bit above Randidly’s, which seemed to leave Brown Spear Puzzled, as Randidly managed to resist his strikes time and time again, if just barely.

While they were fighting, Randidly spared a glance for Golden Spear, but that man seemed to have taken a lot of damage when Circle of Flame had hit him and used him as a wrecking ball on a nearby house. He could barely stand, and was just watching the other fight.

Randidly snapped back to focus, chiding himself for getting distracted during a fight, but Brown Spear just lowered his spear slowly and stared towards the other fight as well. After backing off a few steps to make Randidly feel better, he turned and looked over towards Black Spear and Azriel.

Azriel stood, arms crossed. Black spear was on his knees, a hole in his neck, struggling to speak.

Azriel just shook her head sadly. “I watched for a bit, while Randidly fought against you. If I already knew all the moves you would use… what hope do you have against me? Blame your own hubris. Don’t toy with your food, you might choke.”

The Black Spear user swayed, then fell forwards, barely catching himself at the last moment with his hands. A glob of blood splashed onto the ground as his spear fell over and clanged against the stone. Then he collapsed.

Azriel walked towards Randidly. “Come, we are done here. You two, feel free to take the body.”

Gold Spear looked shocked. Brown Spear did as well, but he seemed to maintain some semblance of speaking ability. “No, he would prefer to be left on the battlefield where he died… but… he… he was the son of-”

“He raised his spear to kill.” Azriel said, leading Randidly away. “He determined his own ending.”

Then the two left, and after a few seconds, the two spear users fled as well, heading in a very different direction.

****

Ciel frowned as she looked towards the noises a short distance to the east. “What’s going on…? Why hasn’t anyone stopped the fighting?”

The strange friend of the Ghosthound, who had led her towards the inn at which they were staying, simply waved his hand airily. “Likely some youngins who were excited by the tournament! Ah, the exuberance of youth, aye?”

“How old even are you…?” Ciel wondered aloud, but the man didn’t answer as he led them finally into a rather cheap looking inn. Ciel’s eyebrows knit together as her nerves surfaced. Did the Ghosthound even remember the bet she had made…? She just… she just wanted to feel in charge of her own life, and had put her hand in marriage on the line.

She didn’t know what would be the worse outcome: that he had heard, and wasn’t interest, or that he hadn’t heard and would just be confused by the whole thing. And honestly, Ciel was a little confused and scared herself. It had been… an impulsive decision, a childish struggle against the influence of her parents in her life.

Ciel raised her hands and began rubbing them wildly through her hair, messing it up as much as possible. What the fuck was she even doing….!