"Entertain you?" Lappland said as she stared down her opponent, seeing if there was an opening in her stance. "I can't wait to see you bleed on the floor."
The woman could only sigh at those words. "I haven't heard those words in a long time."
A smile started to creep on her face, closed yet wide as her eyes reminded half open. Felt as if a sly fox was looking at Lappland.
Lappland didn't feel anything from the woman's smile as to her this was no different than random riff raff she dealt with back in Siracusa.
However Lappland couldn't help but notice that unlike many wannabe mobsters in Siracusa, the woman had an air of confidence. Rather a better way to explain is a lack of fear.
The wolf bent her knees and launched herself in one smooth motion quickly closing the gap, her twin blades roaring to go.
The woman didn't move her legs as she raised her spear. "Frontal attacking, no tricks. I like you already."
The gray light surround Lappland's blades once again as she ended up within striking distance of the her opponent. She brings her blade down like a hammer aiming for the woman's vitals.
The woman raised her spear allowing the wooden shaft to take the brunt of the attack.
Lappland, someone who could easily slice a tree like its butter was confronted with an odd truth. The average sized spear which would normally crack under the weight of her attack simply didn't.
The woman moved the spear in such a way, basically riding the attack and parrying it.
Realizing her first attack didn't work she quickly raised her other blade, cutting the air and rushing towards the woman's neck.
The woman barely moved her head, making Lappland's fatal attack barely miss. The distance between the blade and the woman's neck was so small she could feel the energy within Lappland's blade gaze at her neck.
Finally seeing how strong Lappland was and being impressed by the speed of the wolf, the woman decided to lift one of her legs and kicked Lappland.
Lappland could only bring one of her blades to tank the blow as she felt the foot connect to her chest sending her flying to the other side of the room next to Apollo and Cliffheart.
Cliffheart moved in front of Apollo wanting to talk to Lappland to calm her down but before she could, Apollo placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Why are you stopping me? Lappland is fighting someone who could potentially be talked to." She asked.
"Simple, I want to see Lappland and the woman fight. After all, Lappland seems to love fighting and the woman pushed her into one." He said as he looked at the woman.
The woman's eyes didn't show a hint of worry in regards to Lappland's attacks, yet you couldn't say she was looking down on the wolf girl either.
Lappland didn't waste any time in getting back up. Her eyes narrowed as she continued to stare down the woman. With the gray light still radiating from Lappland's swords she swung her blade.
From the swing came a crescent shaped arts attack of similar color. Then another crescent and another. Lappland launches countless projectiles colored like the moon at the woman covering as many ways of escape as possible.
The woman looked at the attacks, her calm expression didn't leave her face. She lifted her spear before slamming back on the ground, forming a shockwave that permeated throughout the room.
All of Lappland's attack grew dimmer and dimmer until they fizzled out of existence as if the attack was never casted.
"I'm impressed, each attack had such force behind it with your body fueling i-"
The woman wasn't allowed the finish as Lappland sent out two more attacks much closer to the ground. Lappland dashed between them while remaining behind the attacks, suddenly the wolf threw one of her blades at the woman.
The woman didn't move as the two attacks covered her left and right. The woman got bored of playing passive. She bent her knees and pushed herself forwards, the ground beneath her cracking slightly under the pressure.
The woman focused on Lappland's flying blade, parrying it effortlessly; however when she tried looking for Lappland she wasn't there.
The ears on her head which blended in with the rest of her hair perked up. She flicked her head upwards to see Lappland's blade within inches of her face.
The woman leaned backwards causing short strands of hair to fall from the woman's head. She threw her spear away as she raised her hands towards Lappland's neck. She kept eye contact seeing the crazed, borderline murderous eyes of her opponent.
Using the momentum of Lappland, the woman grabbed Lappland's collar while positioning one of her knees on her chest. In one smooth motion the woman rushed to the ground causing the two to collide with the ground with a meaty thud.
Dust and pieces of wood from the floor kicked up clouding Apollo and Cliffheart's view of the fight.
"I think this fight is over." Apollo said as he began walking forward.
Cliffheart followed Apollo seeing how confident he was in his answer. As the two approached the dust cloud a figure started to emerge.
Lappland feeling the full brunt of the impact felt more than just splitting a headache. Her vision blurred, she only had one sword in hand as the other was nowhere to be found. She looked at her hand and saw double.
'Damn, that bitch got a good hit.' Those thoughts passed Lappland's head as she felt her heartbeat increase.
"I'm sorry but I have to end this quickly. I won't hit you too hard."
The soft voice entered Lappland's ear, like a friend whispering a secret to someone. Lappland couldn't sense the woman but that voice confirmed she was right behind her. Lappland couldn't think any further before she felt a hit in her side and her vision turned black.
Cliffheart readied her hook, today had more surprises than she was expecting so the caution was warranted. Apollo kept his hands to his side, his hips slightly tilted. He looked like a mother about to scold a child.
"Keep your weapons down."
Out of the smoke the woman walked out. Over her shoulder was a knocked out Lappland with blood dripping down her forehead coloring the space beneath her with dots of blood.
"That was quite enjoyable, getting some rust off the joints after who knows how long." The woman spoke with a wide smile of satisfaction on her face. "This girl has potential as a fighter, but-" The woman gave Lappland a side eye before returning her gaze to us. "She is missing a few screws in other places."
Apollo could only shrug his shoulders. "Don't we all, I mean look at you. A woman all alone in the middle of nowhere seemingly spying on people for years. I know a lot of guys would kill for a woman like you, but I'm not one." Apollo remarked.
"Spying?" The woman was confused in her voice.
Apollo could do nothing but look at the woman with a blank expression. He pointed to the woman, then Cliffheart, then back at the woman. "Need I say more?"
"I'm just simply doing my job." The woman said.
Apollo lifted only one of his eyebrows while tilting his head sideways. He pointed his thumb to the woman. "Cliffheart we got a weirdo, do you not have the faintest idea on who she is?" He asked.
Cliffheart quickly shook her head before turning her gaze to the woman. "Will you be willing to tell us who you are and why you live in this shrine?" Cliffheart asked while putting away her hook, dropping any hostile or hesitation present within her.
The woman replied with a gentle smile. "I don't mind at all, but I feel as if we may have to talk for some time as I'm sure you will have various questions for me."
The woman tapped her feet, to her side sprouted up a fair size wooden table. On one end there was a single chair, on the other there were three. The woman took Lappland off her shoulder before giving her to Apollo, he mimicked the woman's actions by placing Lappland over my shoulder.
"I'm sorry but the only thing I can provide is water and a bowl of nuts, is that ok?" The woman asked as she made her way to the table.
"I don't mind personally." Apollo said
"I don't mind either." Cliffheart added.
"Perfect, you three can have a seat. Let me get the water and nuts from over there." The woman said as she pointed towards the tree.
Cliffheart and Apollo took their seats as he placed Lappland in her chair in a way so that she doesn't fall out. Apollo put Lappland's hands together and feet together. Cliffheart looked to see what Apollo was doing.
"Apollo, what are you doing?" She asked.
Apollo faced Cliffheart for a second before returning to Lappland's limbs. "I'm binding her hands and feet to the chair, look at this." He said as he pointed to the chair's legs.
Cliffheart looked at what Apollo was pointing to see. She noticed that the chair looked like it was still attached to the ground. "Ah."
"Glad you caught on so quickly." Apollo said as he quickly bound Lappland to the chair using magecraft.
Except it didn't work like he intended to. As Apollo tried to do the spell, the material of the chair was hard to work with.
"Damn, why does it feel like I have two left hands now." Apollo said as he managed to finish the spell. "Perhaps this is the beginning of the end for me." He said as he returned to his chair.
"Sorry it took so long, here you go." The woman said as she place three cups of water and a bowl of nuts on the table. "So with everything set and done, where should we begin?" The woman asked.
"First off, the name is Apollo and the person just beat is Lappland." Apollo said as he took his cup of water in his hand. "You seem to already know Cliffheart, so who are you?" He looked into the cup to see his reflection in the water, not a single impurity could be seen.
Before the woman could answer Apollo threw the contents of the water at Lappland's face. The wolf's ear and eyes instantly perked, Lappland's searched the room for what woken her up. Her eyes quickly fell on Apollo who still had the cup in hand.
"Good morning idiot. How was that nap?" He said with a sly smile.
Lappland instantly tried to reach for her swords but she struggled to move. She shook like a mad man as Apollo could do nothing but laugh slightly, even the woman joined in as a chuckle escaped her lips too.
"I will end you." Lappland said as blood lust oozed from her eyes.
Cliffheart could nothing but watch, being thankful that she was the further seat away from Lappland as all this happened. "You two are evil." Cliffheart said as she drank her water.
"With the comedy skit out the way and all of us being awake. Explain yourself." Apollo asked as the joking expression on his face quickly faded away as a neutral expression formed.
"I will let Ensia dear here explain the basics on who I am." The woman said as she took a quick glance at Cliffheart. "I'm Astrid Brunhild, it's a pleasure to meet you all properly and welcome to the nation I love so much."
Lappland didn't have any reaction to her name seeing as she isn't one to really worry about things not connected to her.
Cliffheart expression shifted to that of surprise, her jaw dropped, eyes wider than the world. "Y-you're one of the old Saintess, Saintess Brunhild!" Cliffheart rose from her seat in a hurry as she shouted those words causing Apollo to jump slightly.
"Brunhild, huh. If you are one of the old Saintess, how come I've never heard of you from the locals?" Apollo asked while keeping eye contact with Astrid.
"It's because she should be dead, she was the head Saintess centuries ago. So how are you here?"
Saintess Astrid Brunhild of Kjerag did nothing but keep her soft smile and eyes.