Marcus…
Holy shit! What the hell was that?! he thought to himself as he struggled to maintain his calm and collected expression and even managed to give her an arrogant smile to make her think that he wasn’t worried.
He was very worried.
Thalia however was ecstatic and flat out bouncing in her seat in amazement. Looking down at the battle taking place from within the audience was very different from experiencing it right in front of you.
In Thalia’s eyes, it might look like she was watching a big explosion that she would see in the cartoons she used to watch. A big spectacle with little actual consequences to the characters in the show.
However, Marcus had experienced real explosions first hand and even taken a really nasty one to the face a couple years back that made him lose his memories for almost two years.
He had even seen some footage of what actual mushroom cloud explosions looked like before and even still he could just barely grasp the terror that something that devastating would cause.
What Moyako just did…?
Erasing an entire planet in seconds…?
Marcus may be fire proof but he wasn’t surviving THAT.
Ruvick wanted him to fight against HER?! Was he insane?!
Thalia was watching Moyako leave in silent amazement before she turned to him with an excited smile on her face and said, “That was awesome! So you’re gonna fight someone like her?”
He went silent and when she took a moment to look him in the eyes, she started to realize that he was panicking.
“Marcus…? What’s wrong?” she asked.
Hearing this, Selene also turned to look at him and noticed how nervous he was. The both of them could tell just from looking at his eyes that he was nervous.
“Marcus?” Selene said as she waited for him to answer.
“Ruvick brought me and her into this contest to fight one another and he expects me to win against someone as powerful as her…? This is suicide,” he said to them honestly.
Thalia was not deterred and kept her hopeful expression as she said, “But I’ve seen you fight and destroy entire mountains before with ease! You’re that strongest person I know!”
He knew that she was only saying that to be helpful but it did little to reassure him.
Moyako…
Walking down the halls of the arena and into the waiting room that she was staying in prior to the first match, she saw a small glow coming from inside it.
Was there someone waiting in there for her…?
As she walked through the door she was met by two people, Camilla and Raum, as they were arguing with each other.
As soon as Raum noticed that Moyako was in the room, his eyes widened and he dropped to one knee in front of her, kneeling to her.
Every time Moyako saw Raum kneel to her, she couldn’t help but feel irritated by his impulsive servitude towards her. It didn’t matter what the situation called for but he had always remained devoted to her no matter what.
She wished that he would give up on serving her in favor of finding something else to do with his life but she could not force him.
As for Camilla...she seemed annoyed to even be in the same room with Moyako.
“So...the original three are back together again once more…,” Camilla said with a monotone voice.
“How long has it been since all three of us were together? Seventy years?” Moyako asked, trying to make small talk with them.
“Seems that way…,” Camilla answered before looking down at Raum who was still kneeling and lightly kicked the side of his leg.
“Come on Raum, get up. There’s no need for you to do all this just for her sake,” she said and he reluctantly stood back up before walking over to a chair in the room and sitting down in silence while he watched the two of them.
“He hasn’t changed much…,” Moyako said and Camilla nodded.
“Yeah...after the Mordrinite War ended, he came to me to ask if he could be of any use to me and to be honest, I was grateful for his help but…,” she couldn’t seem to finish the sentence as the two of them looked at Raum with uncertainty.
Raum, like the rest of them, was a member of the Nøkkran Assassins and was even one of the first three members to help build up their group.
However, he was quite an unusual person. For one thing, all of the Nøkkran were women, even Raum himself. He had the body of a short yet athletic woman with tanned skin and black hair and empty sockets for eyes save for two glowing orbs of light within.
The only reason that everyone in their group referred to Raum as ‘he’ is because according to him, the body is not his own but that of a woman who had died long long ago in a different world. He had called the woman’s body Jeanne D’Arc.
Camilla had never heard of her but Moyako felt that the name was vaguely familiar to her.
Either way, Raum’s real origins were unknown to all of them. He never talked about what he was before being stuck in his current body, only that his self imposed role in life is to serve Moyako.
“I have to ask, I can understand why Raum is here but why did you come along Camilla? I thought you were still planning on overthrowing Queen Hylla and taking over Brunhildt like you’ve been trying to do ever since I last saw you,” Moyako said and Camilla tensed up nervously before turning her head to see if anyone was listening in on them.
She then glared at Moyako before saying, “What is wrong with you? Did you not hear that Brunhildt was going to participate in the contest? Queen Hylla will be sending out her daughter Princess Hilda and Valkyrie Geirolul to compete. If any of Brunhildt’s spies were listening in on us right now-”
“Yes, yes. I know and I understand but I’m a little bit surprised that you would be struggling even to this day to achieve what you set out to do. Over seventy years and yet you still haven’t gained any ground,” Moyako said which made Camilla even more irritated.
“The reason that I haven’t been able to make any progress is because in the past fifty years, we’ve had multiple disasters one after another! For the first twenty years after you disbanded our group, we were doing fine but then the wraith outbreak happened, both my parents were killed, my little brother was orphaned, and then on top of all of that we also had a world war the likes that Erebus hasn’t seen since the Amaskian War! The Nøkkran Assassins were supposed to be a force that would keep Queen Hylla at bay so that things could change for the better without the threat of her launching another attack on Duranell or even harming her own citizens. But you messed that up. You called it quits when we were mere steps away from the finish line,” Camilla said as her voice was raised higher ever so slightly until she was almost shouting at Moyako in anger.
“Have you finished venting out all that you wanted to say to me?” Moyako asked without being so much as bothered by Camilla’s outburst.
“Yes. I’m finished,” Camilla said with an almost satisfied expression on her face. It was obvious that she had been holding in that anger for a long time. She also didn’t answer Moyako’s original question but didn’t really matter.
There was an awkward silence between the two of them for a moment before Camilla asked, “What the reason for you participating though? I never would have figured that this was something you would be interested in.”
“Well...the reason I joined was because someone called in a favor and...because I finally achieved my own goal,” Moyako said wistfully.
Both Raum and Camilla looked at her with mild surprise and interest when they heard this.
“Your own goal…? What do you mean?” Raum asked.
“Its not important right now. Anyways, it seems like Ranni will be competing soon won’t she?” Moyako asked.
“Yes...but I’m not sure how well she’ll be able to preform. Age hasn’t exactly been kind to her over the years. She’s only ninety years old and yet she’s nearly shriveled up like a hag,” Camilla said and Moyako chuckled.
“Where I am from, you would be lucky to live to reach eighty years old and would almost surely look like an old crone from age. Its only in this world with magic that humans can live such long lives and grow to be hundreds of years old,” Moyako said.
With that information in mind, the unspoken truth was obvious to all three of them.
It meant that despite the magic and the longevity of most people in this world, Ranni was an especially weak person.
“Do you think that she will win the first match?” Raum asked.
“There is no way to be certain. We’ll just have to wait and see,” Moyako said as she left the waiting room and joined the audience to watch Ranni's match play out.
Ranni…
As she walked onto the arena, she could not help but feel angry and dissatisfied with herself.
Her bones have weakened, her muscles have atrophied, her skin was wrinkled, and her hands shook whenever she tried to hold her sword. She couldn’t even fit into her old uniform that she once wore in her days as one of the Nøkkra. Instead, she now wore old fashioned armor over a light blue blouse and leather pants. The armor was little more than a steel breast plate, leather arm and leg braces, and a steel helmet just in case she was too slow to move her body around.
She had aged significantly and it infuriated her to no end.
She was certainly old. Older than most people alive in this era, and yet she was still seen as little more than a child compared to her former comrades in arms. Camilla was one hundred and fifty two years old, Moyako herself was well over two hundred years old, and Raum...nobody knew how old he was other than the fact that he was ancient beyond comprehension.
Compared to them, Ranni really did seem like a child. Camilla and Moyako will both likely live to be close to half a thousand years old before they die and yet Ranni wondered if she would live long enough to reach the average life expectancy of the normal human in one hundred and twenty years old.
Ranni joined this tournament in the hopes that she might best any one of her former comrades in just a test of swordsmanship to prove that she was not the weakest in at least one regard. She did not care to win the contest or even win any true battles. She knew that in a test of magical prowess, she was among the weakest contestants present.
In fact, after Moyako had disbanded their group, Ranni had set out to hone her swordsmanship beyond anything that she had ever been capable of in the past, no matter how long it would take.
Now that she was participating in this contest, she had her sights set on defeating Moyako in a test of skill. She would prove to her that among all of the former Nøkkran, that she was the most skilled among them.
With these aspirations flowing through her mind, she watched as her opponent walked forward onto the arena floor.
Surprisingly, the man who came forward had a similar strength to his soul as her own.
On his left arm, he had a large metal gauntlet that reached all the way up to his shoulder and his right arm was wrapped in a leather arm guard that left the tips of the fingers cut off.
He then pulled out a straight sword which had an unusual design to it. It had nine gems that each had mixes of red, yellow, and orange colors. The embedded gems all glowed with energy which gave the appearance of burning flames within the crystals. On the edge of the blade, a faint blue light danced along its surface.
The man, Terrance North was his name, called out by the announcer, was a rather handsome man.
Dark brown hair, gray eyes, fair skin, and he was quite tall. From the strength of his soul and from the way he looked, it was how old he was.
He held the blade up to his face and said, as if speaking in prayer, “O Goddess of Rebirth, I ask that you aid me in this battle.”
“If you don’t mind me asking sir, how old are you?” she asked with her infuriatingly raspy voice.
“Forty seven ma’am...and to be honest, I don’t know how I feel about fighting a woman in a contest like this...much more, an elderly woman at that,” he said with a deep and rich voice.
“I see...you are old enough to have fought in the Mordrinite War, yes?” she asked kindly.
“I did. In fact, I am a Mordrinite and fought for Mordran,” he said gruffly. He didn’t seem all that pleased to admit it but he did so anyways which resulted in many in the audience jeering at him in disgust and anger.
“Now why did you have to go and say that? Now everyone will hate you for even being here. No one here will root for you!” Ranni said to him disapprovingly.
“My beautiful wife and two kids will be cheering me on from the stands. My wife is the one who suggested that I announce who I am and win this tournament in a bout of plain old good sportsmanship. I’m not sure what good it would do me but...if it means I have to fight a little old lady to do it then why not?”
Ranni smiled and nodded her head approvingly as she said, “I like your enthusiasm but be forewarned. This little old lady will still flay the skin off your body if you are not cautious.”
Ranni then pulled out her own sword and gripped it with both hands.
The blade itself was made of bone steel. A material that was made when the crushed bones of powerful monsters or even people were dumped into molten metal during the forging process. And cooled with the user’s own blood. This allowed the owner of the sword to use the magic of the monster whose bones went into crafting the sword.
This particular sword that she held was made from one of the appendages of Arachne.
She had fought the spider woman to a stand off mere months ago and nearly killed her had she not summoned a small army of infested Draugr to defend her when she was wounded.
Ranni had lost her chance to finish Arachne off when she caught wind that Moyako had arrived anyways and killed her.
The shape of the sword was like that of an estoc sword with its long thin blade and short handle. Most estoc swords were made to be held with one hand but she had the handle extended for a two handed grip for better ease of use.
It was an incredibly fast moving weapon and it paired very well with her own mist magic.
The sword could spin spider webs stronger than steel and difficult to cut. She could use the webs to better sense those who travel through her mist, drain their spiritual energy, and even set traps or bind them with it.
It was truly the perfect weapon for someone like her. It was maddening that she didn’t find something like it earlier in life.
With contestants ready and prepared to face one another, the announcers voice roared over the crowd, “Begin!”
It seemed that since both of their souls were so weak in comparison to Moyako and Ordovis that the spatial battlefield didn’t react to them at all. The arena floor remained and their battle would take place as it was.
Terrance wasted no time at all as he immediately began to chant, “Cin Cor Influ Ani-magica: Enhance Body!”
He was barely able to finish his words when thee point of Ranni’s sword struck him on the throat and barely grazed him. Only a minor scratch showed on the surface of his skin where there should have been a massive hole.
Ranni hadn’t bothered to use any magic when attacking him and thought that her own swiftness would be enough.
She clicked her tongue in annoyance at her own carelessness.
Terrance then raised his own sword to meet hers and although his time as a soldier in Mordran’s army clearly gave him plenty of battle experience, he lacked in technique and skill.
Ranni poured some of her spiritual energy into her sword as she easily broke through Terrance’s spiritual aura and slashed his left arm as he side stepped her attack.
“You are quite quick on your feet aren’t you?” she asked.
“I had to if I wanted to survive the war!” he shouted as he focused his energy into his legs, catapulting himself forward fast enough to catch her off guard as he raised his sword above his head, held with both hands, and swung his sword down at her.
Rather than move out of the way, Ranni positioned her sword above her diagonally so that when his sword fell on her, it would slide away from her harmlessly.
Sure enough, the moment his sword met her own once again, it slid down the length of it and out of harms way.
However, the force released from his strike was enough to make her arms scream in agony. He had put all the strength and energy he had into that attack that it nearly made her arms give out just from deflecting it.
Ignoring the pain, she used the momentum that he gave her and dragged her sword up as his own continued to fall down the length of hers.
This form of deflection and counter attack was almost similar to that of the quick draw technique that Moyako was very fond of. She would briefly sheathe her sword for a moment, pause, and then rapidly draw her sword out once again. The act of drawing her sword out to attack caused a drag for her to pull and resist against which fed into the strength behind her attack.
Moyako had taught all of them the quick draw technique but what Ranni was using right now was called the counter draw technique that Moyako had also taught them.
To deflect one’s attack by allowing their sword to fall upon your own and then shift the weight so that it slid out of danger before dragging one’s own sword up in a swift movement, using the drag as leverage to counter attack.
Terrance’s sword crashed to the ground while Ranni’s sword split open his neck and blood began to gush from it profusely, some of which splattered onto her face.
In fact, Ranni had cut so deep into his neck that part of his spinal cord was showing.
She wrinkled her face in discomfort and turned away as his body fell to the ground.
As she was wiping away the blood from her cheek, she said, “I guess that’s the end of all that then?”
But not a few seconds later, Terrance’s body vanished as it was burnt to ashes in an instant.
“What in the world…?” she said before she could once again sense Terrance’s magic surge up. He appeared right in front of her with his sword arm pulled back and the point of his sword aimed right at her.
But how…? He put all of his spiritual energy into that last strike! How does he have all his energy back? Actually, how is he even back on his feet? she thought to herself.
Just as he thrust his sword forward, she noticed that not only was the huge gash in his throat gone, but the previous scratch was actually still on his throat. In fact, the cut on his arm was still there too.
What was going on?
Before his sword could reach her, she quickly backed out of reach of his sword and released a stream of spiritual energy in the form of mist and fog.
“Gladius De Ten Ven Dimi: Navlaan’s Arc!” he shouted and as he did, a blade of condensed black wind cut surrounding his sword through the fog and the arc of the sword continued flying after her. It would have nearly hit her if she hadn’t dropped to her knees to dodge the initial swing.
A beam of black energy crashed into the walls of the arena behind her and left a large gap in its side.
Terrance then took off running, darting side to side wildly, almost without any rhyme or reason behind his movements. Without closing in, he circled completely around her, almost as if allowing her to stand up and prepare to attack.
Not wanting to be put on the defensive again, Ranni jumped forward, wreathing her sword in mist and condensed it even further.
She then pulled back her arm and swung her blade through the air and swung it horizontally. The mist coating her sword slashed through the air and would have cleaved him in half had he not jumped into the air to dodge it.
Shaking her head, she slashed the sword through the air above her and the mist sliced through his body vertically as he was split in half from the very top of his head down to his waist.
Both halves of her body fell to either side of her with a wet splat as he died once again.
Ranni was breathing heavily now.
At her age, she wasn’t cut out for long drawn out fights. It would wear her down if she had to fight him much longer.
Then, in the very next instant, the two halves of his body burnt to ashes in an instant and he reappeared only a few feet below where she had struck him out of the sky.
The scratch on his neck and the cut on his arm were still there as they were before when he had first come back to life.
Once again, all of his spiritual energy was given back to him somehow.
As he was flying back up into the air, she was about to knock him out of the air again but he was faster as he spun his body around and swung his sword at her.
“Gladius De Ten Ven Dimi!” he shouted again as he slashed at the ground, narrowly missing her and leaving a massive gash in the ground when she backed away. However, the force behind his attack was too great. Rocks and dust flew into her face, blinding her for a moment.
She blindly swung her sword at him but struck at nothing as he had disappeared from view.
Did she already kill him once again only for him to be reborn?
He then reappeared on her right side as he released another black blade at her.
In that moment, she used the magic of her spider thread sword to weave a strand of silk around his leg and pull it forward.
It put his swing off course as the spell veered away from her and caught him off balance.
She then lunged forward and stabbed him in the leg but did not deliver a lethal strike.
She wanted to test something out as she pulled her sword out of him and hopped away.
“I think I finally understand the gimmick behind your sword and your fighting style. You use those crystals to bring you back to life in case you die and you can choose the location of where you are reborn from before you died. You can also choose to teleport into a location where you once were at a point in time which is why you were darting around wildly. Only problem is that you can’t heal the non-lethal wounds that I gave you,” she deduced.
He shrugged as he said, “Well, you caught me.”
He then reappeared above her once again, in the moment she had slashed him in half, and he bore down on her.
“Attra Cel, Sui Esse Inimi!” he chanted and all of a sudden his movements became more fluid, more precise and fast. His sword tracked her own almost as if he were being drawn to her.
Every time she deflected his attack, he would switch his place to the position he was in at a different point in time and continued to dart around her.
She needed a way to stop him in place.
As he was coming in for another attack, she paused and let him approach. Rather than wait for him to attack and deflect his sword away, she swung her sword down at his feet and cut one of them off at the ankle.
As he stumbled due to his...loss of footing, she stepped around his strike and waited for him to fall to the ground.
“If I cut off your hands and feet, you will only slowly bleed to death. It won’t kill you instantly like I have done before,” she said as she walked up to him and then stabbed at his right wrist.
“You must remember, I am an old woman and I tire easily. It would be very beneficial if you surrendered to me now so that you can heal up and go back to your family and so that I can prepare for my next match as well. I would rather not expend too much energy to make sure you stay dead,” she said to him and so he looked up at her, through winces of pain as he thought about it.
“Very well...I yield,” he said with disappointment in his tone. As the words left his mouth, all his wounds healed back to normal and he stood back up to nod in respect to her.
Ranni smiled and said, “The people here may not like you very much because of where you came from and who you fought for, but I found your fighting style quite interesting. I wouldn’t mind taking you under my wing as a student in the future, if it would interest you.”
“I will think about it ma’am. Thank you,” he said.
And so the second match concluded.