Chapter 7: PvP (I hope I don't embarrass myself :/)
Lower Wind Month, 11th Day, 600 AGG
"Make me."
Now that Pallavi thought about it, why would they bother? The duo were probably strong enough to kill every single demihuman that had mobilized to attack the city.
The Bafolk Lord felt disappointment well up inside her. At last, a powerful foe stood within reach, but there was no reason for them to fight her specifically.
Although, it wasn't as if she didn't have any incentives to offer.
"I got Kshatra's all over the city that'll—『Kill on my command』," she sheathed her sword and lazily put her hands behind her head. "I'll call them off if you duel me."
"You—There's no way I'm falling for that," the angel frowned. Maybe. Reading human-like facial expressions was tough. The shiny as hell orb floating over her shoulder was distracting too. "I can just—"
"You can tell, right? I'm sure the angels that followed you two are strong, but I don't think they're fast enough to rescue all of those chumps, eh?"
"Fuck," the angel angrily muttered to herself but loud enough for all to hear. "I can just res—"
"That sounds acceptable," the black haired human cut the angel off. Pallavi's respect for the human shot up; you had to have some real guts if you were willing to interrupt someone who could kill you with an afterthought. "But how do we know you'll keep your word?"
"『Oi! All of you get your asses over here!』" the angel and most of the other humans flinched as Pallavi roared into the air with a commander skill, conveying her will to every single warrior that had followed her to raid the city. She didn't have to shout that loud, but it felt more appropriate this way. "There. You happy?"
"... You're rather trusting," the human seemed surprised for some reason. The angel nodded with a sour but confused expression.
"Hah? Shouldn't one show goodwill in negotiations?" Pallavi crossed her arms and tilted her head. "It's not like the hostage plan would really work against you, right?"
"Seriously…" the angel shook her head as the first of the demihuman warriors trickled into view. "You're insane. You're actually insane."
"Yeah, yeah," Pallavi waved dismissively with her hand. "So are you up for it or not?"
"Fine," the angel snapped. Pallavi noticed the human open her mouth as if she wanted to say something before closing it again. "I'll kill you if that's what you want so badly."
"Seph…" the human sounded sad for some reason. What a weirdo. Why would she be sad if the angel was helping her side out?
"Great!" Pallavi pushed all pointless thoughts out of her mind, her body filled with anticipation for what would surely be the most fantastic fight of her life. Maybe even in the history of the Vahasi Republic; how amazing was that?
She made a note to thank the old fogies who persuaded her to make the trip here if she survived. The fight ahead was going to be way more exciting than getting permission to wage war against some goblins and ogres in the center of the continent.
"How do you want to do this?" the angel gently set the human on the ground, a stark contrast to the angry glare Pallavi was on the receiving end of. "Come up with whatever dumb rules you want. I'll fuck you up anyways."
"Hoh," Pallavi saw Wyvern-skull Guy from the edge of her vision. He had a nasty look on his face and even nastier wounds scored across his body. She was pleasantly surprised that the ambush he had gotten himself in wasn't enough to take him down. "You're damn confident for a brat."
"Fuck you—"
"We'll do a standard mautkshan," Pallavi interrupted the angel. There was no way she was going to get shown up by that black haired human! "Did all of you punks hear that?!"
The demihumans all began shouting over each other at this audacious announcement. A mautkshan—death trial—was never, ever offered to anyone outside of the Republic. What had once been a method for people to settle grievances had evolved into a martial tradition where the winner won everything that belonged to the loser.
There was a reason why it was an honor rarely extended to outsiders. The potential political and economic consequences were too troublesome to consider.
Unfortunately, Pallavi Ro Vadh was not a person to care about such trivial and complicated matters.
"Vadh!" Wyvern-skull Guy bellowed in outrage. "What do you think you're doing?!"
"Isn't it obvious?" Pallavi felt confused. Weren't spellcasters supposed to be smart? "A mautkshan."
"The Council won't stand for this!"
"Pft!" Pallavi laughed uproariously and pointed at the angel. "The Council doesn't stand a chance against her, punk."
"Okay, so what the fuck is this 'mautkshan' supposed to be?" the angel impatiently asked. "And all of these other people," she motioned towards all the demihuman warriors, "They'll go back home if I win, right?"
"Death trial, brat," demihumans and humans alike formed a circle around them as Pallavi unsheathed her sword. "Winner gets everything, so you can tell them to go back home if you want."
The black haired human—must be someone important, Pallavi idly thought—frantically whispered into the angel's ear who occasionally nodded before softly smiling and whispering something back.
It didn't seem to mollify the human, but it was enough to make her step back into the inner ring of the circle that had gathered around the two participants.
"Try beating me without magic either," Pallavi winked. "What do you say, brat? You might pick up a thing or two."
"That's fine. I don't need magic to beat up a dumbass bitch like you," the small-fries around them—except that black haired human from earlier, sheesh, respect—gasped in awe as the angel pulled out a Holy Sword beyond compare from a palm-sized portal. "I'll even let you go first."
'So she's not worried about her life-path deviating, eh? Sad as hell how even the strong have limits.'
"Dyurga be my witness!" Pallavi shouted and lifted the point of her sword towards the angel, signaling the official beginning of the trial. Her cheeks hurt from how hard she was smiling. "Let's dance, brat!"
Pallavi's sword blurred as she repeatedly flicked her wrist, launching a flock of razor sharp wind-birds. The angel put on a brave front as she attempted to block the sharp currents of air, managing to neutralize a few while the rest tore into her body—
—and did absolutely nothing. Huh.
The Bafolk Lord dashed in, silently activating 『Ability Boost』, 『Greater Ability Boost』, and 『Evasion』. Her foe startled, noticing far too late that Pallavi had already closed the distance between them.
'『Swift Slash』,' Her sword flashed, rushing towards the angel's neck. To Pallavi's surprise, she was barely able to respond in time, raising the Holy Sword in an attempt to block the blow.
Pallavi aborted the Martial Art and pulled back her blade before thrusting out again towards the angel's gut.
Her sword struck true, its point making direct contact with her intended target, yet it felt as if the impact of the blow had passed through the angel without harming them at all.
'Incredible,' Pallavi rejoiced in her mind as she narrowly backed away from an upswing that would have split her in half. 'I should try attacking softer spots next.'
The angel took a step forward and clumsily swung downwards with the bastard sword. Pallavi smoothly stepped out of the way, applying a 『Focus Battle Aura』on her gauntlets and jabbed at the angel's eyes in a counterattack.
No luck there either. The Bafolk Lord knew she was strong, but this was just weird.
'She's kinda fast, but her strikes are… weak as hell,' Pallavi mused as she effortlessly dodged her opponent's poor shows of swordsmanship. 'Not fast to the point where I can't keep up at all, but more than I was expecting for a spellcaster. And why's she sticking with just one hand when the other isn't doing anything?'
Pallavi lightly swung in a half-hearted feint that the angel fell for—c'mon, that one was obvious —and disengaged from the block before striking at her thighs.
'『Fatal Edge』,' her sword shimmered with an intense haze and made contact before doing… nothing.
'It's not even about her being bad at using the sword. A spellcaster doesn't need shit like that,' Pallavi committed to a furious assault that abandoned all pretenses of subtlety. Several otherwise fatal strikes were delivered upon the angel, yet all amounted to a big fat nothing. 'She hesitates before every damn attack, flinches from mine even though my hits don't do shit, and her choices are dumb as hell.'
To the angel's credit, she did seem to be getting more used to the weight and balance of the sword, her swings became cleaner, filled with more certainty as the duel went on.
'Weird. It's like she's never been in a real scrap before,' how did one become powerful enough to just ignore fatal attacks without dancing on the precipice between life and death? The Bafolk Lord had the feeling that she was missing out on some very important fact.
Before she could continue that train of thought, she stumbled on a loose pebble as the Holy Sword whizzed by, the misstep costing her a shallow cut on her chest. The damn sword sliced through her enchanted chestplate like it was paper.
'Well, I guess it doesn't matter if she can just outlast me,' Pallavi felt a sort of calm settle over her. 'Not like I can repeatedly use Martial Arts forever.'
"Brat," she leapt over a horizontal swing as she dropped『Evasion』from her focus and struck back with a 『Fourfold Slash of Light』. Four concentrated streaks of light materialized in the air, tied to the edge of her blade, and slammed into the angel's face. "Didn't you say you were going to beat me up?"
"Shut—" the angel's furious retort was halted as Pallavi immediately followed up with a 『Blade Flow』upon landing on the ground, a razor-thin line of luminescence wrapping around the angel from hip to shoulder before ending horizontally along their neck.
For her efforts, she was rewarded with a cut along her arm; even one of her strongest attacks proving incapable of piercing through whatever defense the angel boasted.
Pallavi didn't care if her attacks were ineffectual. She didn't care if she lost the match.
Finally, there was an opponent that she couldn't surpass. One that she could truly go all-out against.
'Hah,' she took a deep breath in and held her sword out in a long-point guard, dodging the angel's onslaught with minimal movement. 'Can't believe I actually found someone I could use this on.'
Pallavi raised her sword above her head and dropped 『Ability Boost』alongside 『Greater Ability Boost』in favor for 『Flow Acceleration』, ignoring the sting of the superficial injuries she received while she did so.
She exhaled.
"『Single-Stroke Edict』."
In the same instant, she swung down and passed right through the angel, their backs facing each other. The air parted in her wake, and a powerful gust shook all who were nearby.
The Bafolk Lord sighed and sheathed her sword before turning back around. Unsurprisingly, the angel was unharmed by even her strongest technique, though there was an expression of angry confusion on her face.
"What the fuck?" her foe held the point of her sword towards her. "Get your sword back out, bitch."
"Na," Pallavi drawled, doing her best to not pant in exhaustion before the audience. "I'm allll out of juice. It's your win, so you should finish up."
"I—What?" the angel lowered her sword as the beastmen in the crowd began growling in anger and the humans muttering with a fragile hope. "Just, just no. I'm not going to kill someone who's given up already."
"This is to the death, dumbass," Pallavi rolled her eyes. "Hurry it up."
"I'm not a dumbass for not wanting to k-kill you!" Geez, was the angel crying now? Even Pallavi was feeling a bit of secondhand embarrassment now. "Can't you just—I don't know, just tell all the soldiers you brought with you to go home?"
"How about you tell them after you beat me?" Pallavi walked towards the angel, held her sword hand, and lifted the Holy Sword to her chest. "You're too damn naive, brat."
"Why do I have to do this?" the angel muttered more to herself than to Pallavi. "It's—This is fucked up. All of this, it's insane. It doesn't make sense."
"You made your choice the moment you decided to come here," Pallavi softly responded with a pitying look in her eyes that would have utterly shocked anyone who knew her. "You're strong enough to pick whatever path you want, so stop being so damn half-assed."
"I…" the angel's look of defeat was replaced by a steely determination. Pallavi secretly felt relieved. It would have been extremely embarrassing to be killed by someone who was moping the whole time. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I… I'm sorry."
The Holy Sword gently plunged into Pallavi's chest, passing through her defenses as if they were less than air. The Bafolk Lord coughed out a spurt of blood while more spilled from her mouth and wounds.
"Hah… ha…" Pallavi gurgled as a laugh attempted to escape her throat. "Who the fuck… apologizes for that?"
She closed her eyes, the world around her feeling so distant, and waited for oblivion to claim her.
'Good luck, brat.'
And then there was nothing at all.
The scene before her was pure chaos. Beastmen argued with and cursed at each other while the humans did their best to stay out of the way.
For a moment, Draudillon didn't care about any of that as she rushed towards the stock-still Seph who was blankly staring at the corpse of the Bafolk Lord.
"Seph!" she called out worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"I…" Seph let out a self-deprecating laugh. "No. I'm not okay."
"I'm sorry," Draudillon hurriedly apologized. Gods, she should have never agreed to expose Seph to this war. "I-I shouldn't have brought you here—"
'But it made everything so much easier, didn't it?' a small part of her traitorously whispered. A wave of revulsion towards herself overcame Draudillon.
"It's not your fault," Seph shook her head. "She was right. It, It's my own fault for half-assing everything. Fuck."
"Don't blame…" Draudillon's voice trailed off, catching Uncle hobble his way towards them from the edge of her vision. "Uncle?"
"Didn't think you'd actually be able to do anything," he quietly regarded Draudillon. "Your Majesty. Thank you for saving Mohajar."
"Wh-What?" Draudillon frowned in confusion. "It was Seph who saved the city. I didn't do anything—"
"But were it not for the friendship you cultivated with that angel, she wouldn't have come to our rescue, correct?" he quirked an eyebrow. "You should—"
"Uncle, just," Draudillon gritted her teeth and snarled. "Just shut up. Okay? Just… Shut up."
"Draudillon," Seph laid a hand on her shoulder and gave her a shaky smile. "It's okay. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have even known there was a war going on. I would have just left everyone here to die—"
"How could you even say that?" Draudillon pulled the angel's hand off her with a look of angry disbelief. "Stop blaming yourself, you gods-damned idiot!"
Draudillon gestured at all the Draconic Kingdom soldiers in the vicinity. "All of these people, they're alive. They're still alive today because of you.
"So don't you dare blame yourself," she jabbed Seph's chest with a finger.
"...okay," Seph said in a small voice and looked away. "I should probably—"
The angel abruptly stopped talking and glared at whoever was behind Draudillon. Duke Carthalo stiffened, his face taking on a stony expression as well.
""What. Do you. Want," Seph gritted out as the dragon queen turned around.
"Rajan," one of the Bafolk warriors that had been watching the match prostrated before Seph alongside his fellows; their heads pressed down against the ground, and their hands laid flat upon the same surface. "And Seventh-generation Sword Saint! Clan Vadh pledges itself to you!"
AN: Regarding a character sheet for Seph… I'll post one if I ever get around to drawing some better art for her. So far, it should be somewhat clear that she has some kind of cleric-summoner build.