Chapter 983 (2/2)
“You… you…” Jerrick spluttered through gritted teeth.
Shaking his head sadly, Aldo regarded his exhausted opponent. “Do you see? Unless you remove your boots and experience the baptism of the Earth’s natural energies… in what world could you have defeated me?”
“YOU--!!!” Jerrick roared and rushed with his axes raised. For the first time all fight, Aldo’s foot lifted off the ground. He unleashed a high kick that moved so abruptly that Vye saw nothing but a gleaming flash like sunlight off the barrel of a gun.
Crack.
With a groan, Jerrick collapsed and Aldo walked calmly back toward the buffet table. Shaking his head, the bearded man returned to the arena with his two helpers to mop away a few gallons of Jerrick’s blood. While they worked, the bearded man raised his head and smiled upward toward the area where the Order Ducis was standing. “And now… Vye! Our final challenger.”
Vye frowned. After a few seconds, she began to walk up onto the arena. They didn’t… call a second name?
The bearded man continued to speak. As Vye moved nearer to him, the man looked much older. There were dark bags underneath his eyes and his face was covered with wrinkles. “Unfortunately, one of the contestants was forced to withdraw from the Lottery, so there is an odd number of individuals who participated. Therefore…”
The bearded man’s face split into an even wider grin. “...I suppose that I, Roland, will be your opponent, Miss Vye! Please rest assured, victory or defeat doesn’t matter. Just use this opportunity to display your capabilities for everyone that’s watching. To… show that ideal version of yourself to the Order Ducis”
Vye felt a sinking feeling in her chest. “...I only have one question. Why me?”
“You are a Meticulous Technician, correct?” Roland asked with a polite smile. “We read the information card you submitted. As such… you are one of the few non-combat Classes in this Lottery. In order to allow everyone else to have the chance to display their own talents, it's best for the combat Classes to fight each other.”
Which means that you had to step forward? Vye’s eyes grew increasingly cold as she glanced to the watchers above. Or did you think bullying me in front of the Order Ducis would give you a springboard to apply to join their Order? Is that how our match will allow everyone to display their own talents? Either way…
Rather than angry, Vye just felt her muscles and bones shiver and crack as her vicious focus crawled through her veins and chilled her blood into a sluggish and poisonous ooze. Hyper aware of every movement, Vye produced a pen and a stack of high-quality paper. She watched Roland smiling up toward Naffur Suite, as though waiting for him to intervene.
Naffur looked at Vye. Their eyes met, and such was Vye’s cold fury that she didn’t feel any need to look away. And whatever Naffur found there, when he looked away he didn’t raise a hand to stop the fight.
The image of the wide sky she had been struggling to grasp receded like the tide. In its place, the twisted and beaming face of Roland remained. I might not know how to seize for myself the ability to be truly free, but I sure as hell know how to deal with self-important cocks like you. Let’s all display our. Very. Best.
Without waiting for a signal for the fight to begin, Vye began to drag her pen elegantly across the paper.
For several seconds, Roland watched in amusement. “Are you prepared to begin?”
Vye ignored him. She could transcribe her talismans quickly enough that she didn’t need any extra time at the beginning, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to enjoy seeing Roland face after she made use of that time to smash his smug grin into the dirt. For her talismans, the difficult portion was creating the paper. Once the paper was refined, it took only a split second for Vye to use calligraphy to put one of the four rituals she had learned thus far onto the paper.
It wasn’t a series of Skills she learned from her Class but was instead related to the Ritualist Path she had taken on a whim. Therefore, many people tended to underestimate her when she revealed what her Class was; Roland’s reaction brought back too many familiar memories to Vye.
It took about ten seconds for Roland’s patience to wear thin. His smile became somewhat strained as Vye continued to scribble on her rectangles of paper without acknowledging him.. “Unfortunately, you won’t have an infinite amount of time to prepare in battle. Therefore, I’m-”
With a flick of the wrist, Vye threw two dozen recently complete charms into the air. The carefully processed pieces of paper had enough weight that they cut through the air easily and surrounded Roland. As he opened his mouth in shock, Vye spoke dismissively.
“Ignite.”
The two dozen attack rituals activated at the same time. Rather than any sort of flame, what they produced was much closer to small bombs of energy that zipped forward toward Vye’s chosen target and detonated on the first object they hit. In this case, that unfortunate target was the rather surprised Roland.
BOOOOM.
Although the destructive force of each individual Ignite ritual was small, two dozen added together to be the most destructive attack that had occurred in the Lottery thus far. No smoke was released by the ritual, but the burned clothes and singed hair of Roland filled the hall with a distasteful muskiness.
“You…!” Roland bellowed his acidic indignation as he ripped the charred remnants of his robe off to reveal a rather muscular chest.
Vye winked at him. Hard to show off before the Order Ducis when your beard is on fire, huh?