The big arena in Orario was filled to the brim, the weather was nearly perfect, only a few clouds were in the sky. To heat up the crowd, a few smaller fights happened before the duel, most of them done by specialists from the Ganesha Familia, who were experts in letting a fight look epic. Before the main duel would start, there was a warning via the magical projection, that this fight would fall under the rule of "Sanguis Extremis", which meant they would fight until one party was unable to move, that even death was a possibility. They made clear that this wasn´t a show fight like the once before, but a wargame.
But why did they heat up the crowd before or held these show fights? The god Ganesha wanted to cover up the wargame a bit, so that the normal citizens were not afraid why the two strongest Familias fought against each other.
Even when the elefant god was worried about the fight, he didn´t showed anything of that to the crowd.
This time there were quite a few "VIP seats", due to the rules of the Wargame, the whole Loki Familia, Hestia Familia and most of the Freya Familia were present to watch. The only exceptions were the three gods and Ottar, he stood in front of the door of his beloved goddess, and Freya was the reason why Loki and Hestia were absent.
"Weeeeelcome ladies and gentlemen of Orario! On this fine day we will see the wargame between the Freya Familia and the Loki and Hestia Familia´s!
My name is Ibri Aacha, also known as Fire Inferno Flame and I will be your commentator today! And now please a big applause for our Guest of honor, Laaaaaaadyyyyy Freeeeeeyaaaaa!"
When the people looked at the special seats for the gods, they noticed now that the goddesses didn´t came late...they just didn´t came at all.
"Oooooh, it looks like something is keeping Lady Freya occupied, such a shame. How about the Ladies Loki and Hestia? Ooooh, they are absent too, I´m very sure they just don´t want to make their children nervous or get all the attention...what a divine humility!"
Ibri was a master at winning over the crowd and used even this situation to get them heated up.
The arena itself was a big circle, filled with sand and a few stone pillars that stood in a big ring. A few were damaged or broken and pieces were scattered around.
The young man used the magical microphone to heat up the crowd, he was the Ganesha Familia´s number one comentator. His lively personality was well liked by the people. By his last words he pointed with his hand to the VIP seats at the best spot of the grandstand.
The people cheered and clapped.
"Now thats what I call a cheer for everyone! And now some words from my god."
Ganesha walked towards Ibri and took over the magic tool from him.
"I am Ganesha!"
The god handed the magic tool back to his follower.
"There you hear it!"
The young man passed the microphone to his god again.
"Welcome children of Orario and fellow gods, I hope you all will enjoy the fight, we have some of the strongest adventurers in the whole city today. Let us hope we all can watch an exciting fight,
with skilfull adventurers. There are no regulations at this fight, so a magical barrier will protect the ranks, in case some magic goes wild. May you all have fun and...I am Ganesha!"
With this words he passed the microphone to his follower.
"For all those who are not familiar with the rules or the adventurers participating, I will now explain everything."
"On the side of the Freya Familia, we have the mysterios "Dainsleaf", a dark elf that is said to be a true master of the sword. Fighting along him will be the famous "Vana Freya", he is said to be the fastest adventurer in all of Orario, let us hope that isn´t meant for the bed!"
A chorus of laughter filled the arena, a few teasing comments helped lighten the mood.
"On the other side we have the beaufitul "Sword Princess", the number one of the list "Female adventurers I´d like to be my girlfriend", recently she has beaten the incredible beautiful "Nine Hell" of her own Familia, for the top place of the list!"
Despite the serious situation, Riveria, who sat in the ranks, got flustered when she heard that.
Now Ibri made a bit of a sad face. "But it is truly a shame...I have to announce that the "Sword Princess" will leave the list...and that after reaching the top spot just recently..."
The crowd was a bit confused about this comment.
"Ooooh you want to know why? The reason is the last member of this wargame! He got pretty famous during the last big wargame and...he is the boyfriend of our "Sword Princess"! It iiiiiis..."Raaaaaaaabbiiiiiit Fooooooot!"
These news helped to distract the people, that this would probably a Life and Death fight.
"Aaaaaand noooooow! Heeeeeere they coooooome!"
.
The gate in the north opened, Allen and Hogni came into view. Allen wore his usual boots, black pants and armless shirt, a leather belt held his left shoulder guard in place, the only real piece of armor that he wore.
He used gloves and held his famous, silver spear in his right hand, as most of the times, he hand an angry expression.
Hogni at his side had only black clothes, a strong contrast to his white hair. The only piece of armor on his body were his bracers, but he hid most of his body with a long cape, the upper part covering the lower half of his face. The hilt of his sword appeared between his shoulders, out of the cloak. People were used to elves, but a dark elf was pretty rare, so he focussed on the other side of the arena when many people looked at him. As long as his magic wasn´t activated, he felt bad with so much attention.
The crowd cheered loud for them, many people liked the Freya Familia more than the Loki Familia, mostly because of their goddess.
The gate in the south opened and the opponents of the Freya Familia appeared, many people cheered for the sword princess, even when some were sad that she was taken now...not that these people ever had a chance. Ais wore her usual armor and sword...
But the one who caught the eyes of most people...was Bell.
He wore a complete new set of armor and fabric.
Instead of shoes of boots, Bell wore leather sandals, that were closed with straps that reached up to his knees, they also held his greaves, those covered everything from his ankles to his knees. His body was covered by a kind of old Greek, white tunic. The edge on the underside, that ended right at his knees, had a golden border, his stomach was protected by a wide leather belt, the tunic´s sleeve covered only his upper arms, above the elbows, the borders there were also golden. But he only wore the upper part of the tunic on the right side, the left side hang down on his chest, for a certain reason. Instead of gloves, Bell wore bracers, that covered everything from the back of his hands up to the ellbows, in addition we wore a shoulder guard on his left side. Greaves, bracers and the shoulder guard were made out of a golden material. On the back of his wide belt were his knives crosswise in their scabbards, and some long object on his back, wrapped in bandages. Instead of a helmet, Bell wore a golden headband. All in all...Bell looked like an ancient, greek hero.
When Ais had seen Bell in this outfit for the first time, she had blushed fiercly...he looked really good in it...and for some reason...here eyes were drawn to the bare part of his chest. Ais had seen Bell naked by "accident" when they were in the dungeon on their mission...he really got the body of a warrior, she even had squeaked a bit by the sight of his abs.
"Woooooow! Just look at "Rabbit Foot"! What a sight for the Ladies! But remember, he is taken!"
The armor parts were made by Welf, he had made the ingots together with Hephaistos, they had received at delivery from a "bony alchemist"...whoever that was...with golden ingots. It was some kind of changed adamantit, as written it was called "Auramit" by the creator. The abilities were the same as normal, pure adamantit...but the golden color...looked..."awesome".
Being an immortal skeleton...probably made Fels a bit...weird, but at least he got a hobby.
The fabric for the tunic was also made by him, many protective spells were woven in, as well as pure Auramit threads, even if it didn´t looked like armor, it was more protective than Bell´s old armor...but short lived and impossible to repair.
Even his Familia hadn´t seen this outfit before...
.
"Woah! Master Bell looks awesome!" Lily cheered loudly from her place.
"Hauu...master Bell...so manly...so heroic..." Haruhime couldn´t help but blush.
"Gotta have to say...looks really good all together." Welf grinned.
"Sir Bell looks like a true warrior...just lookt at his expression.
Bell didn´t smiled, nor was he flustered or taken aback by the crowd, he was focussed on their opponents. Ais was the same, both glanced at each other for a moment, while they kept walking.
"What is master Bell carrying on his back?"
"Sir Welf, do you know about that?"
"Hmm? Oh in fact, I do." His grin widened.
"What is it?"
"Oh...you will see."
.
The Hostess of Fertility was filled to the brim, nearly all of the waitresses were at work, only a few missing this day, Ryu, Syr and Lefiya. Around fifteen waitresses were part of the staff, and today Mama Mia needed them all.
It would be pointless to let Ryu work on this day, Mia knew that her mind was somewhere else, as well as Lefiya´s. But when it came to Syr...or rather Helun...
Helun was a master in hiding her true feelings, so much that even Ryu didn´t noticed that something was wrong with her...but only due to her troubled state. Mia had talked to Helun in private this morning.
"You will not work today...Syr." Mia didn´t dared to say the real name, in case one of the cat girls or Ryu were nearby.
"Mama Mia?..."
Only when she was alone with Mia, Helun dropped the cheerfull mask of Syr...she was constantly on the verge of tears. Helun´s heart was broken, for too long she had to play the role of Syr now, giving the cheerfull girl while she wanted to see her goddess the whole time.
"I don´t know what that goddess actually did...nor do I want to know...but one thing I do know."
"Hm?" Tears had dwelled in Helun´s eyes and her lower lip trembled.
"Only Ottar is with her today, go and see her, talk to her...get her out of her room."
"But...Ottar..."
"Here." Mia pulled something out of her pocket, a note. "Show him that."
Helun took the note, her hand was shaking. "But...I..."
"Lacking the courage?"
"Mhm..." Helun only nodded.
"*sigh*" Mia suddenly pulled Helun into a hug, the eyes of the girl widened.
"You are doing good...Syr." This time, Mia emphasized the name in a different way...Helun´s original name was Syr.
"*Hic* *Hic* *Hic*"
"Now now...don´t let the others see your tears...they will think I was too harsh to you."
For a few moments, Mia let Helun sob and patted her back.
"Now go...talk to her...and give her that." Mia gave a small lunch box to Syr.
"Tell that stupid goddess to stop slacking off and come back to work...and next time...I want to see Syr bringing her friend Helun with her to work here."
Helun´s eyes widened by Mia´s words. "Eh?..."
.
"Mmmh..."
"Ryu?"
Astrea looked worried at her daughter, Ryu sat on her bed, the hands clenched to fists while she looked at the magical mirror of Astrea, it showed the scene how Bell and Ais entered the arena.
Ryu was worried...frightened about losing Bell...she prayed to...well to Astrea...that Bell would make it. The goddess sat down next to Ryu and gently put her arms around her last child.
During the whole time since Ryu was told by Bell that he loved Ais, Ryu hadn´t worked a single day. Most of the time she lay in her bed and cried or sobbed...holding her leather glove. Ryu once had an embarrassing moment after rememberring something. One time when she had talked to Bell, she had placed her index finger on his lips to slince what he was about to say. When she returned to her room and started to take off her clothes, she always had to use her teeth to take off the first leather glove, since it was so long. In the moment that her lips touched the glove, finger tip, Ryu rememberred that she had placed this on Bell´s lips...it was...an indirect kiss. Ryu had squeaked loudly and had gotten deep red in an instant. Now she held her glove as something special...but it only hurt her heart more. Ryu didn´t hated Ais...Bell loved her and she couldn´t change that...but it hurt so much...
Astrea had made up for Ryu´s time skipping work by helping out in the pub. She was a bit clumsy and the uniform didn´t quite fitted her, due to her chest size...but the customers liked the sight of the clumsy, well proportioned goddess. When Astrea had a break or was finished with work, she went to Ryu to spend her comfort. She wasn´t the only one, Anya, Lunor and Chloe also came to Ryu..only Syr didn´t. Helun thought she had no right to comfort Ryu right now...pretending to be the real Syr was one thing...but pretending to understand how Ryu felt...since the true Syr felt the same...that would just feel wrong. Even if Ryu didn´t knew Helun´s real self...Helun thought of Ryu as a dear friend.
Ryu turned her face a bit to Astrea...she looked so sad. "Mother..."
"Oh my little angel..."
When Ryu started to cry again, Astrea hugged her more, gently pressing Ryu´s face in her bosom. That had worked wonders with her children in the past...Ryu was the only one back then who was too embarrassed for that. Now Ryu put her arms around Astrea and started to shake again under her tears.
Astrea felt own tears in her eyes...she wanted to see Ryu happy...there just had to be a way...something...
"And nooooooow staaaaaaaart!"
Goddess and elf looked up when they heard the starting signal from the mirror.
"Bell...*Hic*"
.
.
Helun ran through the streets of Orario, they were nearly empty since most of the people would watch the duel via the projected magical visions, done by Hermes. She panted breathless, Babel filled her vision...her goddess filled her mind.
She didn´t even tried to hide her tears anymore, Helun cried openly while she ran through the city.
"Lady Freya..."
.
"Oh I´m gonna give her a fine beating...it´s due!"
"Loki...calm down a bit..."
"Don´t you want to hit her too, Shrim-...Hestia?!"
Loki and Hestia were running through the city, heading towards Babel, they could only dare their plan now...what they had planned wasn´t without risk.
"I want to hear her reason...scold her if I have to..."
"You are too soft! She needs to be punished!"
"Well yeah..."
"Didn´t you banish Apollon too?"
"But...I feel...sorry...for Freya...somehow..."
Loki couldn´t know that, but Hestia was a special "friend" for Freya, since Hestia had treated Freya normal and sometimes a bit harsh, unlike most of the gods. And Freya had too much fun making Hestia flustered, when she suggested things she did in bed at night.
"Feel sorry?! Wait until we see her! You will see she hasn´t changed a bit!"
.
"..."
High up in Babel, in front of the giant window...
The goddess Freya looked down on the city without really seeing something, she just stared into the distance. Freya didn´t sat in her chair, she sat in front of it, leaned against the chair legs. An half empty bottle of wine stood next to her, but no glass...Freya simply drank right out of the bottle. Her dress had wine stains...but she didn´t cared. It had slipped down from her right shoulder, revealing her naked breast...also with a wine stain.
But Freya didn´t cared...she didn´t cared about anything anymore... About two dozen wine bottles were scattered around her. Ever since Bell had rejected her, Freya had stayed in her room and just drank wine. One time Freya got lusty and had pushed down a very happy female servant of her...but before she even started, Freya lost interest and returned to her wine... Freya had hoped to have sex with Bell every day now...showing him how wonderful it would feel...showing him pleasures beyond this world... But...he had rejected her. For a few moments she had thought about pushing Ottar down on her bed and...but she lost interest before the idea even formed for real in her head.
"Bell..."
Freya didn´t knew what kind of festival was held at the arena...and she wasn´t in the mood to use her soul vision...or her magical mirror. Not that she could use her mirror anymore...she wanted to look at Bell once...and saw him touching the breasts of Ais Wallenstein...screaming in pain and rage, Freya had shattered her mirror with a bottle.
Her whole room was a mess...and she smelled due to the wine on her body. She even thought about ending it all and returning to heaven...what was left for her, except for a pointless, boring life...Freya wanted to end it all...wanted to be free.
She didn´t even had the strength in her to curse Hera for the deal she had agreed to...
.
Ottar stood with a stony face in front of Freya´s door, except for washing himself and using the bathroom, he guarded her door. It pained him more than he could describe to hear her cry, sob and scream in pain and rage. He wanted to help her...but didn´t knew how.
"Lady Freya..."
.
.
Bell let his shoulders circle and shook his arms and legs to get his muscles loose, his eye were focused on Allen. Ais and Bell had talked beforehand about the strategy, she would take on Hogni, as a fellow sword user he wouldn´t resist the urge to fight her and proof that he was better. And since Allen hated Bell more than anyone else...he would surely attack Bell right away.
He tried to empty his mind, Bell would fight with everything he had and defeat them. But he wouldn´t kill them...not if he could prevent it. Not only because he would feel bad to kill a person...but because other people would be sad about it. Anya had begged him to not kill her brother...she had cried right away...Bell had promised her he wouldn´t do it.
The commentator threw his arms in the air. "And nooooooow staaaaaaaart!"
.
.
There was no time for words, as soon as the starting signal was given, Allen exploded into a rapid movement. The tip of his spear was aimed at Bell´s heart, Allen didn´t intended to beat Bell...he wanted to kill him. But Bell wasn´t an inexperienced child anymore, he had drawn his Knives beforehand and parried the spear. His training with Finn paid off, and while Allen was incredibly fast, Bell wasn´t slow either.
With a murderous expression, Allen shoved his spear forward, the Hestia Knife and Hakugen screeched as the metal rubbed against each other.
"I will kill you for making her cry!" Allen shouted in his face.
Bell didn´t answered, there was no reason in Allen anymore. He pushed against Allen´s weapon, who jumped backwards, Allen´s favorite style was taking advantage of his speed, using a hit and run tactic...but Bell might be the worst opponent for that. Allen jumped back a few meters, whirled his spear around and dashed onto Bell, jumping left and right to not attack in a straight line. They clashed again, Allen whirled his spear in a series of attacks, that Bell could only block because he had two weapons.
So fast!
It was almost like Allen was dancing, stepping to the sides and turning around at high speed, they were so fast that only first class adventurers could really keep track of what they did. The magical projection in the city showed the fight a bit slower than it actually was. Allen jumped up and thrusted at Bell´s face again, his arms wouldn´t come up in time, so Bell closed his left eye and rammed his head forward, the sound that the spear made as it scratched his headband hurt his ears. Now Bell dashed forward and sliced at Allen´s leg, but Allen moved his spear down, using it to shove himself out of the way. His leg moved up and he kicked Bell in the side, who staggered back a bit, Allen followed him and used the end of his spear to hammer against Bell´s cheek. Bell´s eyes flashed in anger, he gripped the end of the spear and kept holding it, the Hestia Knife swung around and dealt a flat cut at Allen´s wrist.
"Tsk!"
The cat-man jumped forward, let go of his spear and headbutted Bell, but Bell let go of his Knives, grabbed Allen´s shirt and pulled him with him. What followed was a brawl, Bell´s back hit the ground, thankfully he had trained how to fall with the object on his back. Allen punched Bell in the face, Bell in return gave him a hook on the chin.
"Raaah!"
"Daaah!"
Hogni wrinkled his nose as he saw Bell and Allen behaving like animals...in his point of view. His fight with Ais was more elegant...a dance of two swords...quite a spectacle. Ais didn´t had time to worry about Bell, Hogni was truly a swordmaster...and he had already activated his magic that changed him into his fighting mode.
Wind whirled around Ais, she had activated her "Aerial" magic, never before had she faced such an opponent.
When Hogni made a turn, Ais jumped forward to slash from below, but her hand was stopped by Hogni´s right, who grabbed her hand.
"Too bad. You´re nowhere close to my level." Hogni didn´t sound angry or condescending...just calm...and a bit disappointed.
But Ais wasn´t limited to her sword, she used one new piece of equipement too...tight shorts instead of panties...so she wasn´t afraid of her skirt flipping up again. Ais used a movement she got from training with Bete, she catapulted herself up with magic and kicked against Hogni´s head from the side.
The dark elf staggered back and readied his sword again. "How unsightly! This is supposed to be a match of sword against sword!"
Ais frowned angry. "Not for me."
"FRE-YA! FRE-YA! FRE-YA! FRE-YA! FRE-YA!"
The crowd was mostly cheering for the Freya Familia, especially a huge crowd of male gods.
.
Allen and Bell jumped onto each other, dealing straight blows with their right fists, there wasn´t enough time to block the other, while Bell managed to punch at Allen´s chest, his fist found the way to Bell´s stomach. Allen dealt a straight left punch, Bell blocked it with his arm and punched on his own forward. Fists flew into both directions, blocking, evading and attacking the other merciless.
One time both had to clench their teeth when they rammed their fists against each other with full force. Allen jumped up and kicked at Bell´s arms, how he managed to stay in the air was a miracle for Bell, he crossed his arms and blocked the intense kicks. By the last kick, Bell let himself fall backwards and rolled off, to land where his Knives were. Allen rushed to his spear and readied his weapon too.
Bell and Allen had separated from each other and used their weapons again, Allen jumped up, blocked Bell´s left with his left hand, his right with his knee and rammed the spear from above into Bell´s chest. Bell turned a bit to the side and catched the tip with his shoulder guard.
"Nimbl-YARGH!" Allen staggered back when Bell´s shoulder guard flashed in bright light.
It was enchanted to do exact that when it was hit at the right place...together, the shoulder guard and left bracer covered his whole left arm. Welf called it..."The golden fleece"...after the hero story of Jason that Bell loved.
To be honest...Bell had squeaked in joy when he heard the name, his armor was called "The heroe´s set"...Welf knew how to make Bell happy. And thankfull Ais knew about the abilities of the armor too, so she could act and turn her face away or close her eyes for a moment.
Bell´s eyes flashed red when he jumped forward, pushing Allen´s spear out of the way and cutting a part of his shirt, while ramming his forehead at Allen´s nose, due to the headband he heard a light crack and blood gushed out. In his mind, Bell apologized to Anya for hurting her brother. A change happened in Allen´s behaviour, he felt that his rage lowered his fighting skill, so Allen calmed himself down fast enough to fight with a clear head again. He spat out the blood that flowed down to his mouth and jumped forward again, but this time his spear was stopped by a silvery sword, with a loud clank.
Ais had separated herself from Hogni and jumped to help Bell.
"Can´t you deal with your own opponent, stupid elf?!"
"Shut up, cat."
Hogni dashed at Ais and attacked her again, his sword was a dark flash. Bell noticed that Ais had a few small scratches, he didn´t saw it so far, but Hogni´s sword wasn´t always where it seemed to be.
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Allen walked towards Bell and getting faster the closer he came, changing into a charge at the end. He took the Spear in both hands and swung it after Bell.
Bell ducked down and evaded to the side, despite his anger, Allen´s movements were controlled again. The long spear gave him the greater range, but it was also unwieldy if Bell was too close.
"Daah!"
Bell jumped forward, sliced with the Hestia Knife from the side, thrusting Hakugen upwards from below.
"Why do you still move?! Just die already!" His opponent sounded angry, while he made two quick steps backward to evade one knive and blocking the other.
.
"Ooooooh what a brutal fight!"
The crowd cheered loudly, the fight looked just awesome.
"Lord Ganesha, do you have some comment to those methods?"
"I am Ganesha!"
"Please take this seriously!"
.
Allen did something that Bell didn´t really noticed, as a consequence of this, dust shot upwards, in a cloud around them, thankfully Ais´ wind dissolved it in the moment it came up. Unlike Hogni and Allen, Bell and Ais fought as a team.
Thank you, my love!
As Bell jumped forward, slicing with Hakugen through the cloud and dissolving it this way, his opponent took a step back surprised.
Half turn, strike from above, step forward, kick low, turn and thrust the Hestia Knife.
Bell didn´t have time to think right now, attack followed attack as the started his counter attack.
Fake left, push right, turn, jump forward, double thrust with both Knives.
His opponent whirled his spear around, taking some slices and thrusts with his "armor". Allen was fast...incredibly fast...but even the mind of a first class adventurers couldn´t follow every movement and let the body react in time, so both received their fair share of scratched and small cuts.
"Why don´t you go down!" He jerked the sspear up and turned it into a slice against Bell. "You made "her" cry! You only deserve death for it!"
"I didn´t do anything to goddess Freya!"
"YOU DARE TO PLAY THE FOOL?!"
He staggered back, as Bell whirled around and sliced the shoulder guard with the Hestia Knife, leaving a long scratch.
Enraged, his opponent thrusted the sspear forward and attacked from the side with his fist.
Bell stepped aside just enough to evade the blade and hacked with the Hestia Knife from above.
Thud!
The sound was strange when his Knife hit the spear shaft.
Bell returned the grip on Hakugen and hammered the knife´s pommel against the wrist front of his opponent.
"Gah!"
"FRE-YA! FRE-YA! FRE-YA! FRE-YA! FRE-YA!"
.
Allen shook his head and thrusted his spear forward again, this time Bell wasn´t fast enough and Allen left a long cut on the underside of Bell´s forearm, where the bracer didn´t covered his skin.
"Firebolt!" Gritting his teeth against the pain, Bell fired two firebolts in rapid succession.
As he expected, Allen evaded them with ease...but Allen wasn´t his target. Bell had noticed that Hogni had moved in a way, that Ais wouldn´t be able to block him, so Bell helped her this way.
Hogni had to stop his attack to evade the magic.
"You stupid cat! Kill your opponent already!"
"Shut up, stupid elf!"
Bell and Allen...and a bit away Ais and Hogni, started an rapid succession of attacks and counter-attacks, while they moved back and forward in circles. They noticed that they came near to one of the collapsed pillars.
.
When the Hogni turned his back to Ais in a fast try to slash at Bell´s back, Ais kicked the ground and dashed as fast as she could onto him.
"""Woah!"""
Tch!
The crowd reacted to Ais´ jump and warned her opponent this way.
"Haha!" Hogni whirled around and unleashed his sword, he was pretty fast.
It was almost like he was using a whip sometimes...he changed the styles of his sword play with mastership. now he attacked with the sword in his right hand and held the other prepared.
The sword cut Ais´ thigh before she could finish her jump, Hogni pulled the sword back and attacked after changing the hand, while he shook his hip again and moved to the side as if he was dancing.
Hogni was very experienced with his weapon, and the magic in it gave him a strong advantage.
"Ooooh what a sight! Dainsleaf is like a whirlwind of blades! He drives back our lovely Sword Princess, but he cut her wonderful thigh, what a shame! Rabbit Foot will surely avange what is rightfully his!"
"Ahahahaha!" Sword slash after sword slash was fired at Ais, who tried her best to evade, she still received more scratches on skin, clothes and armor.
I can´t get close.
Ais was very experienced as a warrior, but she never faced someone with such a cursed blade before.
"Oh just look at that! Never would I have thought seeing the Sword Princess cornered like that!"
Ais whirled and jumped around to evade the sword, her opponent left no opening for her to use.
Guess I have no other choice...
She tried to slice the sword away as it came near, but Hogni was used to such an attempt and pulled back his sword.
Nnnngh...Tione...I´m using your teachings...
That was no easy decision for Ais, from all her friends, Tione´s teachings made Ais the most problems...it just wasn´t her nature to fight like that.
Ais started to scream in anger. "AERIAL! TEMPEST!"
Screaming in anger was important when she wanted to attack like that...or so told her Tiona...and she knew her sister the best. It was the same thing that Loki had told Ais in the past about yelling out the name of her attacks would make it stronger...Ais didn´t got that this was a joke...
Hogni couldn´t block all of what Ais did when she attacked with such speed, his word might be a cursed weapon and not be at the same place any time, but when she attacked with such speed, Hogni just had to block. Right when the moment came were his sword was bound by her own...Ais dealt a straight punch with full strength at Hogni´s nose. He staggered back with a scream, Ais followed him and hammered punch after punch in his face...the members of the Loki Familia were shocked to see their princess fight like that. Only Gareth, Bete and the amazon twins roared and cheered loudly.
"KICK HIS ASS, AIS!"
"PROTECT YOUR BUNNY!"
"SHOW THEM WHO`S THE STRONGEST FAMILIA!"
I hate to fight like that...
.
"Whaaaaaat iiiiis thiiiiis! The Sword Princess is pushing Dainsleaf back!"
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Due to her artificial rage, Ais attacked with immense speed and slashed and stabbed at Hogni. But she wasn´t afraid that the anger...or the black flame...would consume her. From time to time she saw Bell int he corner of her eyes...the sight of him alone helped to calm her a bit...to focus.
Bell, I love you!
Right when Ais dealt another straig punch...Hogni threw his cloak into her direction, piercing it from behind with his sword.
It happened in an instant...whatever Hogni´s sword was...when Ais tried to block with "Desperate", she heard a loud crack and the upper part of her sword whirled away. Her eyes widened, "Desperate" had the Durandal effect and was meant to be unbreakable...but now she had only a hand length left of her blade.
"Wha-!"
Lord Goibniu will yell at me again...
The smithing god got always angry when Ais damaged her sword or broke it...
Ais blocked with the rest sword but she felt a sharp pain in her rib region, Hogni´s sword was again longer than it looked and he had stabbed her, her white battle dress turned rash red around the wound.
"AIS!"
Before Hogni could run through Ais with his sword, something white flashed and Hogni´s wrist was cut by a thrown Knife, Hakugen. Ais thanked him silently, moved fast to pull herself back from the sword and grabbed the Knife. She wasn´t a knife fighter, but she had trained often enough with Bell to know how she had to use them.
Ais readied her stand, now using basically two knives.
In the next moment, the whole crowd and every person in Orario who watched the fight screamed out in surprise when Bell grabbed the thing on his back.
"HANDS OFF MY WIFE!"
The bandages around the thing started to get loose, revealing a sword hilt, which was grabbed by Bell. He pulled the sword from his back, the magical enhanced bandages that he had to use as a scabbard rolled off, revealing Olympus to everyones eyes.
In the moment his fingers closed around the hilt, the magic bound in the blade awakened with a thunderous roar to life. Lightning gushed out of the cloud in the middle, letting the whole blade shine in actinic blue, electrical fire...the effect was actually similar to his Firebolt.
Bell yanked down the sword in the direction of Hogni, his eyes were filled with rage. A wave of electrical fire burst out and turned the sand under it to glass, Hogni´s eyes widened and he jumped back before he could finish off Ais, the pillar behind him exploded, a few splinters hitting Hogni...but surprisingly none hitting Ais.
Despite the fierce fight and Bell´s epic reveal of his sword...the women of the Familia couldn´t believe that Bell had just practically proposed to Ais in the middle of that fight. Especially the amazon twins were excited, that was very romantic in their eyes.
.
.
"What is this!"
"Dear gods!"
"Holy macaroni!" Achilleus slapped his knees.
On an island far away from Orario, the warriors that sat in a big house roared in surprise as they saw how Bell unleashed the magic and showed "Olympus" for the first time."
"THATS MY GRANDSON!"
Zeus has jumped to his feet and cheered the loudest for Bell, seeing how he had just saved his...apparently wife...from the dark elf. Only one person in the room didn´t cheered for the boy that most of them saw as their little brother, big brother or something similar...since Bell was the direct descendant of both Familia´s. His father was from the Zeus Familia and his mother from the Hera Familia.
"Dear..."
Zeus turned grinning to Hera...who looked a bit unhappy.
"Dear...would you...kindly tell me...why does Bell...have a sword...that looks like your old sword...in heaven?"
"Ahm...it was a gift! A gift to my lovely grandson!" Zeus grinned.
"And am I correct in assuming that this sword was forged from ... Elementium ... Elementium that I gave you to keep an eye on? Elementium which actually belonged to me?"
Zeus´ happy grin froze. "Ahm...y-...yes?"
Hera looked at him wordless.
Zeus threw himself to his knees. "I just had to do it! Bell needed a weapon of a hero more than anyone else! Believe me, most beautiful star under the sky! Brightest sunrise of my life!"
Now Hera smiled a bit. "Charmer...it´s okay...I wanted to give it to him anyway...at least you could have told me."
"You...wanted to give it to him?"
Hera raised and eyebrow, then she showed him the beautiful smile he had once fallen for...and loved it up to this day.
"Well, Bell is my grandson too, in a way."
A happy smile bloomed on Zeus´ face. "I love you so much, my life, my love! But to be fair...you look way too young and beautiful to be a grandmother."
Hera was the only person on earth that Zeus would bow his head too...he had often enough reason for it when he...flirted with other women again.
She smiled by his compliment, Zeus was very good at this...something that Bell had learned from him. "But honestly...I´m surprised that Bell is married at his age..."
"I am surprised too...I wonder why Hermes didn´t wrote something about it..."
Many people were surprised by Bell´s outburst...and he would probably be very ashamed later. The truth was, yelling the word girlfriend would just take too much time, and yelling "my woman" would sound like he owned Ais.
Hera looked at the mirror again. "It is a good thing he protected her...such a shame that she belongs to Loki...she would make herself good between my girls."
Zeus smirked. "Looking for a new "Empress?"
Hera patted Atalanta´s head, who sat next to her goddess on a pillow. "No, no...my cute cat is strong enough for that."
The cat-woman got flustered by the words of her goddess.
.
.
With a low bell, the elevator reached the top floor of Babel. Hestia and Loki left the elevator and followed the corridor, there was only one room up here.
"Is that..." Hestia gulped.
"Warlord." Loki looked up to the sturdy man, who eyed the goddesses.
"Goddess Loki...Goddess Hestia."
"We want to see Freya, Warlord."
"I can´t let you to her."
"Why not?"
"She didn´t ordered me to do so."
Hestia hid herself a bit behind Loki, she was afraid of the enormous man.
"Are you a puppet? Can´t you decide on your own?" Loki narrowed her eyes slightly.
Ottar´s expression remained the same. "Your taunts won´t work on me."
"Geez Warlord...no let me say Ottar, what do you intend to do about Freya? She has shut herself in for quite some time now."
"I..wait until she orders me to do something."
"Don´t you want to help her?"
He didn´t answered...he didn´t needed to answer...of course he wanted. But Ottar was the best and the worst guardian when it came to Freya...he was afraid to act against her will...but he would do everything for her.
"Ahm...Mr. Warlord..." Hestia dared to step out of Loki´s shadow and looked up to the man that was twice as tall as her.
"We want to talk to Freya...I am worried about her..."
Hestia was just honest, while she wanted to give Freya a bonk to the head...she was also worried about a goddess who she considered a friend. Freya had done horrible things, made her cute, little Bell cry...but Hestia was much like Bell in one thing...even gods could make mistakes. Also she didn´t really wanted to fight Freya...Hestia just wanted peace.
Ottar was torn...even with his stony expression, they could see that.
The ring of the elevator interrupted their conversation. A young, blond woman came running out, she was sweating all over from running through the city.
"Ottar!"
"Helun."
Loki and Hestia looked curious at the panting woman. "Please, let me to her!"
"Why are you coming now?" Ottar had told her that she could come to Freya, if she wanted to see her...but so far Helun didn´t dared.
"I can´t bear it anymore, it tears my heart apart! Please! Let me see lady Freya!"
Helun cried and wasn´t ashamed of it, she had changed her appearance back when she entered the elevator, she wanted to talk to Freya in her true form.
"Ugh...fine...but be warned...if you do anything to her..."
"Thank you, Ottar...*Hic* thank you..."
Ottar wasn´t made out of stone...he could see that Helun suffered, carefully he opened the door and let them inside. It may have been brazen, but Helun ran in before the goddesses had a chance. The big room smelled, really bad, the table and chair were thrown to the side. Freya sat crosslegged in front of the window, swayed slightly with a bottle of wine beside her.
"Lady Freya!"
"Freya..." Hestia was shocked by her appearance.
"Oy..Freya.." Even Loki lost a bit of her anger.
Ottar remained at the door, it broke his heart to see his lady suffer like that. Normally, the sight that Freya gave would be to die for, she had pulled down the upper part of her dress, revealing her naked upper body. But now...it looked just sad.
"He...lun?" Freya slurred a little when she looked up to her follower...there was no light, life or joy in her eyes anymore.
.
.
Bell held Olympus with both hands, electrical blue fire washing over the blade, his face that of pure anger. In the moment that Ais got hurt badly, his mind opened to the anger of the sword. It wasn't a dark consuming rage ... more the pure elemental rage of a thunderstorm.
"Raaaaah!" Bell yelled out loud and attacked Allen again.
So far he had taken more than he had given, but Olympus helped with the difference. He jumped up and hacked with his sword from above, every swing was accompanied by an outburst of lightning energy and even when Allen blocked or evaded, he couldn´t escape all of the lightning.
Bell swung Olympus from the side, Allen whirled his spear around to block him, taking steps back. Allen never fought in one place, but moved whenever possible. By the next swing, Allen ducked down and jumped to the side, Olympus hacked right through the pillar that was behind Allen, roaring like a thunder clap.
A hail of splinters hit Bell and Allen, together with the spear tip that carved a flat cut at Bell´s ribs.
Bell had a guess how long Olympus´ magic would hold before running out, so he wasted no time.
Gong...
A small cut appeared on Allen´s thigh, Bell used his Argonaut skill to charge up his body, he used only one second charges, but it was enough to give him a boost. And finally, activated due to the magic of Olympus, the small gem imbedded in Bell´s headband activated too.
It was a small magic item that Fels had created to test something, he had delivered it to Haruhime and explained her how it worked. It could hold one spell until it was activated, only using it with around fifty percent strength, but that should be enough.
In the ranks, Haruhime prayed and sung her chant in her mind, she didn´t casted the spell right now...but she just had too when the gem activated.
Uchide no Kozuchi!
It would last at a maximum of five minutes, but right now...Bell was an upper level six adventurer, on the level of Allen and Hogni.
Light particles gathered around Bell´s left fist, while he attacked Allen over and over, even Hogni couldn´t hold back to fight against such a sword. He ignored the bleeding, panting Ais and went to attack Bell together with Allen. THAT was a fight he was longing for!
Bell noticed Hogni and drew the Hestia Knife with his left hand, more light gathered around his fist. Using his Argonaut skill twice at once, by gathering energy around his hand and to boost his body from time to time, Bell started to get a headache. But it was nothing compared to the time on the 37th Floor. Like it´s bigger "twin" Olympus, the Hestia Knife started to burn, but in a blazing orange fire, with more fire than lightning.
The crowd could only yell in excitement when Bell took two of the strongest Freya Familia executives head on. Most of his anger was directed at Hogni for hurting Ais. The dark elf grinned in a wild manner, Bell was an opponent worth fighting.
"Irgh..." Ais panted heavily, the wound burned.
She leaned against one of the pillars, not able to see the fight at the other side...she made no move to help Bell.
Allen jumped up to strike from above, Bell ducked down and rolled off to the side, in the moment he came up, Olympus blocked the cursed sword of Hogni. The magic that emitted from Olympus countered the curse effect...but it made a horrible sound.
.
In the pub, every work had come to a hold, staff and customers watched the intense fight in awe. Astrea had taken Ryu´s hands in her own...Ryu was afraid of seeing the boy she loved getting hurt...or maybe killed.
Down in the main room, Mia had put her arms around Anya´s head, gently holding the quivering, crying cat-girl. Anya covered her own ears with her hands and her eyes closed, not wanting to hear or see Bell or her beloved brother getting hurt.
If everything would turn out good, Mia would give Allen a spanking the next time he sat on the house on the other side of the street to watch over Anya, she knew how often he did that. She would wash his head for making his little sister worry and cry so much.
.
When Bell came up, Allen´s spear hit him vertically and threw him back. Bell rammed the Hestia Knife into the ground, leaving a scar of scorched sand behind when he stopped his sliding. The sound of the Bell around him got louder and more light gathered...unnoticed by most of the people in Orario, clouds gathered over the arena due to the leaking of lightning energy. Allen and Hogni attacked together, not using teamwork, just moving in the same moment. For them it was almost as if they were fighting Ottar at this moment.
"Die!"
"Fall down into darkness!"
Hogni hit Bell with an overhead blow, getting blocked by Olympus again. Allen thrusted his spear, producing a metallic screech when the Hestia Knife grazed his tip. The blades whirled around, Bell had to block both weapons at once from above, opening his defence to a double kick of his opponents, throwing him back screaming.
"Out of my way elf!"
"Shut it cat!"
Their quarrel gave Bell the moment he needed to get back to his feet, half of the arena was now between him and Ais..no hope to fight together...and Ais was still down on one knee, making a pained expression.
The ringing of the bell reached a new high, pure white light wandered into Olympus.
Now or never!
Bell raised his sword with both hands and turned it around, the tip aiming at the ground. Hogni and Allen dashed onto him, right when Bell was about to bring down the sword.
Every single god in Orario got goosebumps when they saw how Bell stood there, enveloped by lightning, those white clothes...the white hair...
It was like a scene in the far, far, far past...when...
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"I`LL BANISH YOU TO THE DARKEST PITS OF TARTAROS!"
It was back then when Zeus had used the "Blade of Olympus" to wipe out the titans on earth and banish them...Bell looked exactly the same now.
.
"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Bell rammed the tip of Olympus into the ground, unleashed his skill, the level boost and all of the magic in his sword at once. Allen and Hogni were fast, especially Allen, but no one in the world would be fast enough to escape that now. An explosion of pure lightning energy burst out from the point where Bell had rammed his sword into the ground. His two opponents jumped right into it, wanting to scream in pain but were unable, due to clenched teeth.
Allen still used his spear to hold himself in place, not caring about the elf at his side getting blown away.
That was why Ais didn´t came to help Bell, they had made up this tactic beforehand, Ais played the wounded one and Bell drew their attention. Olympus shielded Bell against his own attack...mostly...but Ais had to be far away to be safe.
"WHAAAAT IIIIIIS THIIIIIIS!"
The commentator and the crowd went nuts, the fight got more and more epic.
Even the male gods had...changed their chant.
"THUNDER...THUNDER...THUNDER...THUNDER RABBIT! HOOOOOOOOOOO!"
.
.
Inside the house on the island, some of the warriors had to avert their faces by the brightness on the mirror. Zeus had jumped to his feet...together with Hera...
"KICK THEIR BUTTS BELL!"
No one had ever heard Hera yelling like that...
.
.
"Hm?" Hestia looked up for a moment when she saw a light flashing in the arena from above.
Helun knelt next to Freya and was crying, unable to say a word.
"Loki...whyareyouhere..." Freya was hard to understand.
"Oy Freya! Snap out of it! This isn´t you!"
Loki had seen Freya drunk a few times, sometimes they drank together when one of them got their hands on some fine wine. Hestia was more the worried one, she had a red face when she tried to pull up Freya´s dress, to give her some dignity back.
"Freya...come on.."
"Hehehehe...Hestia...youareshoshmaaall..."
Even when she giggled...Freya´s eyes remained...like dead.
They tried to talk to Freya for five minutes now, but it just didn´t worked.
"Are you trying to flee from what you have done by drinking yourself to the ground?!"
Loki was angry, a bit about Freya..and more that her "rival" made such a pathetic figure. She came to yell at Freya, punch her for doing that to Ais...but now Freya didn´t let her vent her anger...because Freya suffered more than through anything that Loki could do to her.
So she can be like that too...
Helun sobbed and used a handkerchief to gently wipe away the wine from Freya´s cheeks and chest...she didn´t wanted her goddess to look like that.
Freya lost her shown happiness and looked so lost and lonely again. They heard heavy steps when Ottar came closer.
"Lady Freya."
Freya looked up, no reaction in her expression. "Ottar."
He wanted to help her...but Ottar was like a child in that matter...he just didn´t knew how.
"Oy Warlord."
"Hm?" He turned his face to Loki.
"Don´t kill me now, that is for her best."
"What do you mean?"
Loki didn´t answered, instead she raised her hand and slapped Freya with full force.
"Ah!"
Freya was about to fall to the side, but Loki held her in place and dealt a backhand slap on the other cheek, then the first cheek again. All in all, Loki slapped Freya with her full strength four times.
"GET BACK TO YOUR SENSES FREYA! THIS ISN`T YOU! I CAN`T EVEN BE ANGRY AT YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY AIS! And the rabbit..."
Never before since Freya went down to earth, had someone hit her. Ottar could only hold himself back barely, Hestia looked shocked at Loki.
"Loki, stop that!"
"What are you doing?!" Helun threw herself over Freya to protect her goddess.
But...it worked wonders.
"Au...Lo...ki?" Freya looked at Loki, wondering why Helun was clinging to her body.
"Back to your senses?"
"What do you want here...let me alone..."
"Freya..." Hestia looked worried.
"Hestia...you too?"
"Mhm.." Hestia nodded.
"I see...you came...to seek revenge...you have the right to do so."
"Freya I..." Hestia wasn´t sure what to do...she wasn't actually vengeful by nature.
Before Loki could yell out again, Hestia raised a hand.
"Loki, please let me. Freya...why did you do it? Why charming Ais Wallenstein? Why trying to do that to Bell?"
"I love him...I wanted him..."
"Like I thought..." Loki growled.
Freya looked up to Loki. "Loki...will you believe me when I say...I didn´t meant any harm to your child? I just wanted her out of the way...like I told you."
"You made my little Ais cry! She was heartbroken!"
"That...I´m sorry..." For the first time it looked like Freya was feeling really sorry for something she had done.
"Freya...what you did was horrible..." Hestia frowned lightly.
"I know..."
Hestia raised her hand to Freya´s face, the goddess of love closed her eyes, expecting another punch. But Hestia only snapped her forehead with her index finger.
"Your punishment."
"Eh...Hestia?" Freya raised an hand to her forehead.
"I can´t punch someone in a state like you are...it would make no sense kicking someone who is on the ground anyway."
"Mh..."
"But Freya...while I can understand that you were desperate...I felt so too when Bell confessed to Ais Wallenstein...it wasn´t okay what you did."
Tears dwelled in Freya´s eyes, she was really hurt deep in her heart.
"I will not punch you...but since our children are fighting a wargame...when we win...you will never approach Bell again in such a way...let him live his life in peace...you have enough people around you."
"A...wargame?" Freya looked confused...she didn´t knew anything about that.
"Allen and Hogni are fighting against the Sword Princess and the Rabbit right now. Allen demanded a duel with even death possible."
"What?..."
The four present may be the only people who ever saw Freya's facial features slip.
"Lady Freya...please..." Helun whimpered at Freya´s chest.
"Helun?"
"Please! I can´t bear with it anymore!"
"Wha-"
Helun´s eyes were red from crying. "I can´t play the role anymore! Playing the happy girl while you are like this! It tears my heart apart! Ryu is crying all day over Bell, she isn´t just heartbroken, Ryu is suffering! You know how much she loves Bell!"
"Ryu?"
"Yes! She is crying in the arms of her goddess every day! Because Syr isn´t there for her! To cry together with her, comfort each other! I have no right to do that, it would be wrong! Please! Come back! She needs you!"
"But I..."
"I know that you are hurt! But Ryu is only a bit older than twenty! She don´t know how to deal with this situation! You have more experience in love! She is like a lost child right now, the only thing that holds her steady right now are her friends! But she needs her best friend! She needs you!"
Helun shed more and more tears, she opened her heart for the first time really and let out all of her feelings.
"Ryu..."
Ottar and Helun weren´t jealous about Ryu, they knew that she was a special being for Freya...her best friend.
"Anya is suffering too, she is afraid about Bell and Allen, they might kill each other!"
"My little kitten..."
"Chloe and Lunor need you too! All of them are missing you!"
Helun didn´t cared about the two gods present, Loki and Hestia were silent and let the crying girl talk to Freya.
"I can´t do this anymore! I can´t play the role anymore! Please come back!"
"But it is all so pointless..."
"Why?!"
"Bell...doesn´t love me...it´s...all pointless..."
"LADY FREYA! Please stop it! Start living your life, enjoy your life more!"
"But..."
"Bell might not love you...but he has given you something no one else has."
"Helun?" Freya was confused.
"How you are feeling right now...so hurt...so heartbroken...you never felt something like that before...right?"
"Of course not."
"So...a new experience...due to Bell."
Hestia and Loki were confused, Freya´s eyes widened more and more by Helun´s last words. It was true...Freya had never before felt this...while it hurt...it was a new experience.
"Ottar."
"Mylady?"
"Go and stop the wargame, I will surrender."
"Yes Mylady."
Ottar turned around and left the room. "Helun, watch over her."
"I will."
"And stop hitting her...or you all will regret this."
Hestia and Loki gulped.
Finally Helun was able to pull up Freya´s dress when she sat up a bit, the human girls was unable to talk between her sobs.
"Loki, Hestia...I will accept any demand you have. You will win the wargame, what do you want from me?"
A bit of dignity returned to Freya´s expression.
Hestia looked to Loki. "Just...never do this again...leave them both in peace."
Freya nodded, then she looked to Loki.
"Ha...whatever. You will pay for the damage caused by your children, leave them both in peace...say that I´m superior and more beautiful than you...and it is..okay. There is no point in hurting you further...you suffer enough already."
"Loki!" Hestia frowned.
"Okay okay...without the declaring part...but the rest stands...and that will stay between us."
Freya nodded, looking out of the window to the arena.
"Then we´re done here."
Loki nodded to Hestia and both went to the door, Hestia looked worried over her shoulder...it didn´t made her happy to see Freya like this...
.
"Helun?"
"Mylady..."
"Would you stay with me...for a while?"
"Yes..."
Freya had many things to think about...and even when Helun´s words were true about a new experience...her pain didn´t just vanished suddenly.
.
.
Bell was panting, due to his anger, Hogni had gotten the full force of the energy and was thrown back into a pillar. Even if it was a dirty move, Ais used her chance and jumped at Hogni, punching him again and again in the face to knock him unconscious. Being a dirty move or not...it was better than killing him.
He readied his sword, the magic had run out, Allen had received his fair share of damage and was panting, looking more angry than ever before. Bell´s whole body hurt, but he saw a chance to end this.
Bell had expected many ways for Allen to continue the fight...but not by throwing his spear at him.
"Woah!"
He jumped out of the way of the spear, Allen exploded into a fast movement, catching the spear while he kicked Bell against the head from the side, grabbing the spear shaft and started to attack again.
With no chance of winning through defence, Bell attacked Allen on his own. The level difference was there again, only the amount of damage that Allen took gave Bell a bit of a chance.
Allen a vertical slash from below which Bell didn´t even tried to block, but jumped backwards to evade getting his belly cut open.
Another spear swing followed the first one, this time ripped the upper part of the tunic away from Bell´s body.
He is faster than I thought.
Bell moved his right hand with the Hestia Knife after the cat-mans swing and slashed along his shoulder. Bell only wanted to break Allen´s balance to give him a chance in delivering a fatal blow to knock Allen out.
But Allen used his shoulder guard to ram into Bell.
He staggered back, but used the momentum jump backwards a bit, kicked the ground and landed a kick against Allen´s arm to deflect the following thrust of the spear.
"Die already!"
Bell glanced over his shoulder to get an impression of his surroundings, one of the pillars was nearby.
Bell, always use the terrain to your advantage..
Ryu...had drummed that into him over and over again.
"Ridiculous!"
Allen changed the grip on his spear and swung it parallel to the right side after Bell. In the last moment Bell jumped to the side, leaving the pillar in the way of the spear.
Now!
The moment the spear was about to touch the pillar, Bell jumped forward and raised his sword, ready to attack Allen the moment his spear would hit the pillar.
But...
Allen had moved faster than Bell had anticipated, so Bell jumped right into the direction of the spear tip, yanking his head to the side but receiving a long cut at his cheek.
Bell narrowed his eyes and cowered down, preparing to attack. Allen took a wide stand just as Bell jumped forward. He slashed with Olympus at Allen´s spear. Quickly, Bell pulled his arm down, reversed his grip on the handle and thrusted upwards to surprise Allen.
"No you don´t!"
Allen jumped forward, turning himself on one foot as he touched the ground again and swung his spear over his head at Bell, who followed him. Since he had no other choice, Bell put his left hand on the broadside of Olympus and took the downward blow. The sheer strength of that swing brought Bell down to one knee. When he saw Allen´s fist coming, Bell used his remaining strength to push himself back. Immediately kicking the ground and attacking Allen again, to give him no time to regain his balance. Olympus shone for a moment in lightning again, using Bell´s mental strength, a bright light flashed and Bell cut right through Allen´s spear shaft.
Allen held one part of his spear in each hand and the dance of attack and counter attack continued for a few moments with enormous speed.
"Huff...Huff.." Bell blinked sweat out of his eyes.
"Grrrr." His opponent made a grimace.
Bell took Olympus in both hands, ran forward and jumped up to deal a slash from above.
But...
His movement stopped when Allen´s hand shot forward and grabbed Bell´s hands, stopping the sword before it hit him. He had let go of the parts of his spear. Their arms shuddered by using all of their strength against each other.
Many in the crowd leaned forward to see what happened now. Allen gritted his teeth, his face filled with pure rage. Bell tried to overwhelm Allen. Ais couldn´t come to help him, the wound she got from the cursed blade wasn´t played.
Allen pushed himself up, made a fist with his free hand and used all of his strength and speed to give Bell a chin hook with full force. Bell´s head snapped back, his hands opened against his will and he staggered hastily back, losing his balance. Allen jumped after him and and right when Bell fell backwards to the ground, Allen came from above and rammed both of his knees in Bell´s stomach.
"Buha!"
Giving him no time to react, Allen raised both fists and hammed them down on Bell´s face. Bell couldn´t react, he was lying there, his arms stretched to the side when Allen raised his right hand, punching Bell right in the face, snapping his face to the side.
The Freya fans in the crowd started to cheer again when Allen punched with his left fist, then raising both fists and hammering them into Bell´s chest. He would kill him with his bare hands, the Loki and Hestia Familia watched in horror.
"Bell!"
Ais yelled from her place, but she was still struggling with Hogni, who just refused to get knocked out and fought back.
.
Bell´s arms and legs twitched up by another double fist punch of Allen.
.
Allen rammed his right fist into Bell´s face again, blood splattered from Bell´s mouth and nose.
.
The left fist hammered down again, snapping his face into the other direction...more blood splattered.
.
Bell couldn´t fight back, Allen´s right fist came down again and Bell felt his skin getting torn, Allen´s fists were red from blood.
.
By the next punch when Bell´s face went into the other direction, an image filled his mind.
.
He saw his grandfather standing in a wide grass area, a stormy sky in the backround, a thunderclap filled his ears.
.
Another brutal punch hammered down and threw his head around again, riping away Bell´s headband.
.
The image of his grandfather again...it looked like Bell was coming closer to him, the sky above growled...another thunderclap.
.
Another punch...Bell´s head snapped into the other direction.
.
The thunderclaps got louder, Bell´s view was filled by the image of his grandfather, the clouds above him growled.
.
Allen brought down his left fist again...Bell´s head snapped to the side...and his eyes flashed blue.
.
Pure anger filled Bell´s expression when Allen raised his fist for another punch.
.
.
.
Thrum...Thrum...Thrum...Thrum...Thrum.. !
.
.
.
Lightning washed over Bell´s arms and out of his eyes, his bloody teeth gritted in anger. It sounded like a reactor was charging up.
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Before Allen could bring down his fist, Bell yelled out and punched upwards. His fist didn´t reached Allen´s face, but a lightning bolt shot upwards out of his fist into the sky.
Allen was thrown back when the lightning hit him, it didn´t stopped there but shot all the way upwards, visible in all of Orario, scaring two goddesses who ran out of Babel in that moment.
It happened like in slow motion when Allen was thrown backwards, his shoulder armor flew away. Every voice in the arena came to a hold, everyone was shocked by what happened.
The few Freya, Loki and Hestia Familia members came to their feet and looked shocked.
A few whispers were heard in the arena, no one was sure what just happened...was that magic?
Bell got up to his feet, held both hands up, turned them and looked at his body. His eye had an actinic blue color, small lightning emitted out of them...and lightning washed over his arms and upper body.
In that very moment, Bell looked exactly like Zeus in his young years. Allen got slowly back to his feet, gritting his teeth in anger and making a fist again, panting heavily.
Bell looked up, the irises of his eyes were not visible in the glow, lightning still washed over his fists and arms.
With a yell, Allen ran forward, Bell started to move, fell into a fast dash, lightning followed him, emitted from his body and feet.
The faster he ran the louder got the rumble.
Allen jumped forward, raising his fist, when Bell jumped up, lightning followed his path.
Bell was faster this time, his fist hit Allen´s cheek and all the lightning on his body unleashed in a small explosion, bathing Allen in it´s pure energy. Every single elf and beast person in the arena had to cover their ears from the enormous thunderclap, wind washed over the ranks and people yelled out in shock.
The sand around the explosion was blown away...as was Allen.
The cat man had received the full force and hit the ground.
"THUN-DER! THUN-DER! THUN-DER! THUN-DER! THUN-DER! THUN-DER! THUN-DER!"
The group of male gods started, but soon the whole arena chanted for Bell.
In every pub of Orario, every Familia´s home and far away on the island, the people chanted for Bell and yelled out in cheering for him. Zeus and Hera didn´t wanted to calm down, they hugged each other and jumped up and down while they yelled.
"THAT`S MY BOY!"
"WELL DONE BELL!"
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"Ugh..."
Allen groaned on the ground...he wasn´t able to move anymore, all his strength had left his body. Bell´s body was normal again and he staggered on his feet into Allen´s direction, holding Olympus in his hand.
"Well done boy...kill me."
Bell stopped in front of Allen, noticing that Ais walked slowly into his direction, she had finally knocked out Hogni. He raised his sword, Allen closed his eyes for a moment, the sword came down and rammed into the ground, next to Allen´s head.
"Wha-!"
"I won´t kill you...we have won...give up."
"Never!"
"Either way, I won´t kill you. Ms. Anya would be sad...and I´m sure lady Freya too."
"You have...no idea...what...you are...talking...about."
Bell panted. "I know...well enough...how much...your sister...loves you."
"Irgh..."
Allen would continue the fight...if he just was able to move.
A figure landed in the arena, near the fighters, a very tall man.
"Allen, it is over, lady Freya surrenders."
"Ottar! What are...you saying *cough*!"
"As I said...she wants to see you two...see all of us...this fight is over."
"Irgh..."
Ottar walked to Allen, put him up and threw him over his shoulder, he went to get Hogni while he looked at the ranks of the Freya Familia. "Return to Folkvangr! Order from Lady Freya!"
He turned his face to Bell before he left. "Impressive fight...fight me one day, I can always use good trainings partner."
"Eh?"
With this words, Ottar left the arena.
"IIIIIIIIT`S OOOOOOVEEEEER! THE LOKI AND HESTIA FAMILIA WIIIIIIIIN!"
The crowd exploded into loud cheering and applauding.
"Bell."
Ais finally arrived at him, limping, in her small fight at the end, Hogni had managed to hurt Ais´ leg. Bell catched her in his arms when she staggered a bit.
"You fought good." She smiled.
He smiled lovingly. "You too."
For a moment both forgot the arena and everything. Bell put his arm around Ais´ waist, pulled her a bit closer, she placed her hands on his shoulders and shared a long, loving kiss.
The crowd cheered even more.
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Back in the pub, Ryu smiled in relieve, her cheeks wet from her tears.
"You did good...Bell."
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Authors Note. Phew...a little bit over 12k words. I didn´t wanted to make a cliffhanger in the fight, so I wrote one big chapter. The next chapter will be the last of this arc, then the first big arc is finished.
For Ryu, all I can say is that her suffering has meaning for the future of this story. I have plans for her, but no, she won´t be Bell´s second wife or lover.
Oh and just before someone asks, no Ryu also won´t become the lover of Syr.
I read there seems to be a Genshin Impact reference, I can say this is just a coincidence and wasn´t intended.^^
It will take many months from now on, but when this story is finished in the future, I will write one about a more Harem story, the non ero version of "Blood of Zeus". One of the main girls will be...since it was asked...Riveria.