The Abyss Star exile guild vs. Team Thorn.

Now that the duel is decided, we move to a different venue that is far away from the city. A patch of worn grass marks the arena for the match. I secretly set up a barrier to block sight and sound from escaping the area.

The two sides stare anxiously except for Dunfer who looks smug as a lizard, and me who doesn’t feel any of the tension at all. I think heroes are naturally immune to anxiety in these situations.

Dunfer 「 Gosler will stand judge over these duels. Does that sound fair? 」

Becca 「 All right. 」

I think the dwarf can be impartial or at best on our side. I mean there’s no secret to hold leverage on him anymore.

Gosler 「 Then, first round. Participants to the center. 」

Dunfer tilts his scaly chin at one of his men and they step forward. It’s the skinhead with a slouched back covered in tattoos. He seems like the kind of creep that licks stuff with a long tongue. The poster boy of criminals.

The man of tats holds a skinning knife and has a crazed look in his eyes.

Now who to send? I decide the smart thing to do would be to send a demon to fight a killer. I appraise the skinhead and it brings up his status. It’s stronger than an average guard at level 30 with more points in his Agility and Dexterity. But Envie should have a breeze with him since her level is at 125.

Becca 「 Envie. Your up. 」

Envie 「 Yes your highness. 」

I thought I told her not to address me like that. But now’s not the right time to bring that up.

A skinhead with a skinning knife faces off with a maid of light hair done up and pale skin. Gosler signals the start with his hand swinging down.

The bald skinhead charges at Envie and stabs her with little resistance. He smirks like he’s won, but his face soon pales in shock. The knife that should be inches deep in Envie’s waist is instead missing its blade. Only the handle remains.

He looks left and right on the ground for the missing blade when Envie brings a hand up holding the blade. A light smile on her face brings a shadow over the skinhead’s. That man has the look of one who just screwed up.

He tries to get distance from the demon maid but she cuts his escape off with high speed that could be mistaken for an exclusive skill. Faced with superior agility, the skinhead’s thoughts halt until he grimaces and activates his skills.

He yells out his skill, Poison Breath, and a green mist flows out of his mouth. Envie holds a handkerchief to her mouth like warding off the stench.

「 Hah! Poison Breath doesn’t need to be inhaled to work! It seeps into the skin and weakens you until you’re as good as dead! 」 the skinhead cries out.

I check Envie’s HP with menu’s party tab. Her HP isn’t dropping. Actually it does take a small dip, but her HP Regen heals it up quickly. Envie looks nonplussed but the skinhead can’t tell the difference and assumes she is despairing.

「 And that’s not all. Quicksand! Struggle in the sinking ground! Which will run out first, your health? Or your stamina! 」

Sounds like a nasty combination. With the Earth magic skill the skinhead uses a Quicksand spell to trap Envie. She starts sinking into the muddy dirt.

「 No one has ever escaped this combination alive! Ahahahah! 」

Envie casually brushes her hair back and transforms into her demon form complete with horns and wings. A simple flap and out of the sinking sand she goes up into the air.

I take a sneaky pic with my smartphone at the skinhead’s aghast expression. Gotta save this moment for later.

Envie「 A worm dares to dirty my outfit? Pathetic. 」

Her cold voice makes the skinhead fall to his knees and soon enough he admits his utter defeat. I guess that was his best attack, and feeling the pressure a demon gives off he realized he was no match for her.

The man retreats back to his side of the arena head down while Envie floats back and resumes human form. After watching that all I could think was, how does her wings not poke holes in her clothes after sprouting?

Gosler announces the score of 1 – 0. The girls are in a good mood.

Cheshyr 「 All right, I’m up next! 」

Cheshyr leaps forward raring to show off. Dunfer looks like he swallowed a tough pill. He sends one of his own forward, the elf with the raging muscles. He reminds me of those bodybuilders hyped on steroids.

「 Little girl. I apologize, but I must claim victory. Though I did not cultivate these muscles for such purpose, I must unleash them. 」

Cheshyr 「 Let’s see you try it. Only fate knows who will win. I, the queen of darkness, shall take you on. 」

From the way she sounds, Cheshyr seems pretty excited.

Gosler 「 Begin! 」

The bodybuilder charges at the half elf Cheshyr whose head reaches only to his waist. She casts a basic fireball spell at him but he pushes it away without a scratch. She rolls to the side as his fist crashes down on her previous location.

The impact brings up rocks and dirt with a force that pushes Cheshyr further back. I use Analysis on the bodybuilder and see that while in levels he is slightly ahead, his highest stats are in Strength and Vitality. With no special skills, his muscles are quite literally the strongest offense and defense.

I can tell Cheshyr is feeling the pressure since she turns serious and stops playing around. She casts a fire wall between them to buy some time but he digs into the ground with mighty hands and flips over the ground. The wall of Earth submerges the fire and extinguishes it. That was like an impromptu earth wall magic spell accomplished with pure strength.

Cheshyr forgoes the magic and rushes at the bodybuilder with a sword in hand. I’ve yet to see her brandish her sword when she easily took care of some monsters with just her fire magic. She’s been pushed this far by the bodybuilder.

Metal clashes with flesh except the sound reverberates like she struck another sword. The sword doesn’t cut into the flesh as intended. That bodybuilder’s vitality is high enough that ordinary swords won’t cut it.

I’m reminded of when I crafted a bunch of armor and weapons for the girls, but only Cheshyr refused them, saying that she didn’t want to borrow strength from others. Her sword is just a common kind of weapon with barely any attack value. If she had a weapon that I crafted and enchanted, it might actually penetrate his defense.

Cheshyr’s eyebrows furrow while the bodybuilder calm as stone speaks.

「 I’m sorry, but I’ll end this quick and with full strength. Hmph! 」

He flexes his muscles and chops down at Cheshyr who raises her sword up to block. With a clang sound, the sword snaps in two and the chop sends her tumbling backwards. Despite how she normally acts, Cheshyr has a lot of pride in her. I bet its the demon hunter bloodline in her that makes her like that.

She gets back up with her broken sword and refuses to give up. I can sense her desperation when she tries to launch several fireballs at the man.

He easily shrugs them off with his bare hands. Frustrated, Cheshyr casts another fireball up in the air but doesn’t immediately throw it. Instead she lets it engulf her sword in flames. She craftily makes a sword of fire with her broken sword as the base. As if that wasn’t enough she makes another fireball and smashes it into the fire sword making it burn brighter.

The bodybuilder looks seriously at that intense scorching heat and assumes a ready stance. Everyone here can tell that this will be the last move of the fight. Cheshyr yells out a battle-cry, dashes forth, and swings the fire sword down at the bodybuilder.

Rather than meet it unprotected the bodybuilder equips some metal gauntlets and punches out with a right straight at the sword. Metal covered fist meets flame coated sword in a burst of energy and one of two is thrown several meters back.

The one on the ground before us is Cheshyr and as the smoke clears, the bodybuilder still stands with a scorched gauntlet and some ash on his face. Cheshyr struggles to get back up but the magic exhaustion is taking its toll on her and she collapses powerlessly.

Gosler declares the winner and the score of 1 – 1.