Chapter 15: A Spar With Unwholesome Stake After A Peaceful Night

After hours of peaceful naps….

Ryoma and Esdeath were now on the grassy plains outside of their mansion. And unlike before in which they kept sticking like glue while getting lovey dovey, they were now standing against each other while separated by a 25 meter distance. Plus, their relaxing attire had been changed into the more proper ones for battle.

The man was clad in his favorite black shirt layered with white double breasted vest, black straight-legged trousers, and black boots, while holding the armed hammershield of Rebellio and its modular blade in his black gloved left and right hand respectively,

And his beloved wife/opponent was wearing a new set of military attires modified from her previous one which consist of her usual white and black general cap, a form fitting eight buttoned thigh-length white military coat tied with a belt which has her trademark black cross insignia and black shirt underneath it, and a pair of long black boots which extend until right above her knees.

Overall, her new attires covered up more parts of her alluring body than before while still showing a hint of its enticing curves, perfectly maintaining the balance of serious militaristic style and sexiness.

Though one question remained… Why did they seem like they would fight in the first place after such a peaceful night?

"Haah… what a very impatient debt collector"

it was because after he just woke up from a very pleasant nap with a very pleasant dream alongside his beloved ice queen, she immediately began nagging him to pay his debt of a spar….

"Well, It's not like I have a choice right~?"

And as a man, he couldn't back down from his promise! Especially after she took great care of consoling him when he was in such a pathetic state caused by a seemingly silly reason.

Yeah, when he thought about it as he woke up it was indeed silly. Like, why the hell should he be scared of an obsessive animal which might not even exist at all as it was just a joke made by his discord homies back then? Even if she really existed, there is only one thing he must do…

'Become stronger so I can defeat her once and for all!'

That's right! The one and only way to win against your greatest fear is to face them head on! So there was no need to waste time dwelling on such fearful thoughts if he could use it to become much more powerful that G's existence wouldn't bother him at all!!

"Fufufu~ Patience isn't my forte dear~" his battle maniac empress laughed seductively as she conjured a pair of ice swords in her hands.

"No need to say the obvious right?"

He could see and feel her burning desire for triumph! It seemed like his adorable murder machine couldn't wait to finally claim her victory, though it was kinda understandable as she had never won against him whether in real or bedroom battles….

"Melee only, equalized stats, and no supernatural powers or advanced technologies can be used after the battle starts… is that all?" he confirmed the rules once again to his sparring partner who was already very eager to jump on him.

"Yes– Oh one more thing! The one who draws the first blood wins!" and she added one more rule which made this spar quite extreme as they would be akin to threading on thin ice in every exchange.

"Sure….." though he just shrugged it off as it only made the fight even more interesting.

"Then, shall we bet something?~"

That sly smile, he got a bad feeling about this…

"Hm, why not?"

Fine, he would play along with her game…. She wouldn't bet something ridiculous right? right?!

"Fufu~ then you may go first, my dear~"

It seemed like she was up to no good…. If she wasn't, then why would she let him set the benchmark for their bet in the first place! And if that's what she wanted then he would go high directly!

"Alright… I want you to wear a naked apron for a whole day!"

"Oh my~ My dear husband is such a pervert~ Is seeing me naked wasn't enough for you?"

"Well yes but, some variations every now and then is good, no?"

That's right! Even though he is already satisfied with her naked body, there's this kind of unique charm in seeing such an alluring body like hers wrapped in erotic pieces of clothing.

"Very well~ then for mine, i want…."

It was confirmed… She was absolutely up to no good! He could feel some kind of excitement was welling up inside of her and it definitely wasn't a pure one!

"You want….?"

"Absolute control in bed for a whole night!" She pointed her sword at him as she declared her desire with shining eyes.

"....."

As he had expected, her request was more perverted than his own!

'Wait… hold up!'

And when he thought about it more carefully, all of the established rules only gave him disadvantages while giving her the opposites!

Equalized stats which rendered his physique superiority useless….

Melee only, which was her best specialization that worked really well in tandem with the banning of any use of supernatural powers and advanced technologies as it made him unable to use most of his main arsenals which consist mostly of advanced long range weapons….

And as the cherry on top, the first blood rule she recently proposed which absolutely impaired his berserker-like combat style….

Thus he concluded, this spar was a trap all along!

"Heh~ What's wrong? You got cold feet~?" She smugly smirked as she saw that her man stayed silent after knowing that she had him in her grasp.

"I.. umm.. no but, can you just ask this when we are in bed or something?" he responded to her taunt by asking her back and tilting his head in confusion.

Like, she could just ask to be on top and he would be fine with it so there was no need for this bet at all, right?

"I've already done that but you always took back the lead from me…."

Indeed he allowed her to be the dominant one but it never even lasted a round as he immediately counter-attacked and brought her under him again!

'Uhh… I never said that I wouldn't…' the man in question just averted his eyes and tried to act innocent, though it only made his wife's eyebrows twitch in annoyance.

"Dear… you already knew that I could hear your thoughts, right? Hah no matter, I just need to win and we will have so much fun~ hehehe~"

Oh she absolutely would fight like her life depends on it! She had already obtained some of her dearest's emotional reliance so she needed to strike while the iron was still hot to completely make him hers and hers alone by dominating both his mind and body! Furthermore, she could take his mind off of that beast, two birds with one stone!

Then how about the truce? Heh, she would keep the end of her bargain after she fully dominated her dearest husband so she could make him slowly forget about his annoying digitalized slave! Truly a perfect plan!

"That is... IF you can win in the first place…." he smiled subtly as he readied his shield and blade.

"Fufufu~ Lie to yourself all you want but deep down i knew…." Her voice faded away but immediately after, her devilish whispers reverberated all over his mind, "You want to lose~ You want to be subdued by me~ Your whole being is already anticipating how I would toy with it after I claimed my victory~ Don't you want to just surrender like a good boy and let me take very 'great' care of you? Hehehe~"

Siren's song was mere low quality music if it was compared with his ice empress's whispers.

Each word she uttered inside his mind with that sultry yet dark voice of hers led his imaginations deeper into her inescapable embrace, and the longer he listened, the more his desire to directly surrender was building up as a consequence of his waning willpower.

Truly, his wife at this moment was the most vicious adversary he had ever faced! But…..

"That kind of tactic is useless to me!" He roared in defiance as he raised his guard.

That was indeed dangerous, his dearest wife's voice almost made him pitch a tent right there and then! Good thing that he had developed a tiny bit of resistance against her charm or else he might just raise the white flag directly.

"Hehe~ good~" she giggled seductively as she took a lower stance to prepare to launch herself at him. "But don't you dare lose deliberately or else your punishment won't be very gentle~"

"HAHAHA Like hell i will! Theresa, prepare the sparring mode!"

[Master, I suggest changing the rules and betting as they are very much one-sided!]

She knew what was going on inside the vicious mind of that lunatic woman. She wanted to use this opportunity to instill subservience in him, then slowly molding her master into a husk which would only rely on that psycho alone!

And as expected, she couldn't trust that mentally ill woman! So much for a truce for her to be betrayed the next day!

"So what? This much isn't enough to make me lose!"

Master, you just raised a flag….

[Very well… I believe in you, Master!]

Nonetheless, she decided to put her trust in him because if it wasn't her then who else would?!

Theresa didn't realize that she just raised another flag.....

A bigger one nonetheless….

[Sparring Mode Initiated!]

Moving on, as the mode was initiated, a gentle almost unnoticeable wind blew on both fighters' skin, and gave them a feeling as if they had been moved into a separate dimension even though they were still standing in the same place.

[Establishing rules….]

[Initiating the status adjustments and calibration…]

Then a gentle blue energy enveloped the two of them and faded away soon after, putting all of their physical abilities on equal terms although they noticed something odd….

'I don't feel any changes….'

It was strange indeed, Ryoma should've experienced massive loss of strength while Esdeath should've undergone the opposite but they actually felt nothing at all?

[Both of you couldn't feel it because it's necessary to maintain your optimal battle performance]

The reason was immediately answered by the referee and both contenders nodded in agreement as they understood that needing to adapt to sudden changes will impair their capabilities by a lot.

[Next, prohibiting further use of advanced technologies and supernatural powers…]

As she continued, the same wave of energy enveloped the two again to seal any supernatural powers and the technologies they had.

For the test, Ryoma tried to activate the pile bunker mechanism of his shield and Esdeath tried to conjure a simple ice cube and the result was as expected but they noticed something interesting…

"My swords are still intact?"

Yes, Esdeath's ice swords didn't melt or disappear into thin air.

[Only further use of supernatural powers and advanced technologies are prohibited, Mrs. Esdeath..]

"Oh I see, then anything she has conjured beforehand won't disappear huh?"

[That is pretty much it, Master…]

"Very well… you may continue, Theresa"

[Affirmative! Now please, select the battle arena!]

Following her words, a light panel showing the selection of battle terrains popped out in front of both fighters, a lot of selections…..

All kinds of biomes like forest, desert, etc. with many variations of them, urban environments from across all times like old school medieval village until futuristic megapolises, and last but not least, dangerous terrains like inside a volcano's crater, in the middle of stormy seas, even in the outer space!

"So…. which one do you want to pick, my lady?"

And as a gentleman, he would give his beloved wife the honor to choose first. It wasn't because he was too lazy to scroll and find the right one, definitely not!

"Sigh…. Maid, just choose a random one."

She shared her dearest sentiments. So, she would leave the decision to fate!

[Alright then, Shuffling Battle Arena…..]

The battle terrain images on their screen began moving erratically with astonishingly fast speed and after waiting for around ten seconds, the arena was finally decided!

[Imperial Colosseum!]

As Theresa finished her declaration, the world around Ryoma and Esdeath became blurry and slowly warped into a grand colosseum, a very familiar one to boot….

"This brings back memories…." and the Ice General sighed nostalgically as this arena was frequently visited by her in the past.

The Imperial Colosseum of her former world, a place she loved to visit when she first came to the Imperial Capital as it was one of the places where she could fight and slaughter strong fighters, though she stopped visiting it as much after she became the strongest of that ruined kingdom because no one was brave enough to challenge her….

But this time, the long forgotten arena had finally found another purpose! To witness her triumph against an insurmountable opponent, the man she loves with all of her being! Though it wouldn't be a fair and just victory, but a win is still a win!

[Setting up Victory Conditions…..]

[Victory Condition: Drawing the first blood]

[As a final confirmation, do both contenders agree with the already established rules and conditions?]

""Yes!"" Answered both fighters decisively and the air around them began to change…

[Very well! The battle will begin in 3….]

Esdeath noticed the difference in her dearest. He didn't give her the image of an unsurpassable monster like the first time they met, but a Master Combatant who had slaughtered countless in the battlefield!

'So the Battle Experience Card can bring this kind of result huh? Interesting!'

It turned out the man she was going to conquer still had a formidable ace up his sleeve. But so what?! The Victory would still be in her hands!

[2….]

Visible cracks could be seen forming on the arena's floor below them as they got ready to charge forth and bring down their opponents!

[1….]

And at this moment, no longer they saw the one before them as the love of their life, but as an enemy they must defeat for their "Grand" goals!

[Zero! BATTLE BEGIN!!]

When the zero hour finally arrived, the Ice General immediately launched herself to the man who strangely only took one step forward. But, she didn't need to think too much about it because she already knew that It was a trap…

"Heh~"

And indeed it was as he somehow vanished from his place and appeared right in front of her with a blade that was already on its way to impale her gut while she was still charging at him with full speed.

The technique that he used was void steps, an extremely advanced form of footwork technique that forces the opponent's eyes to automatically ignore all information relating to the user's existence.

But, it was very much ineffective against her as her senses had been enhanced tremendously after her first battle with him that she didn't need to rely on her sight alone to clearly grasp the movement of her surroundings. So tricking her eyes wouldn't do anything noticeable.

She seamlessly redirected the force of his masterful stab to her right side using her twin swords in an attempt to break his stance then utilizing the residual energy, she spun and delivered a right spinning heel kick to the back of his head.

BOOM!

Which was unsurprisingly ineffective as he managed to rotate his body in a timely manner to block it with his shield, though the impact was strong enough to almost shatter the ground he was standing in which was already reinforced tremendously from its original counterpart to endure the pair's destructive power.

'So this is how equalization works huh? Interesting'

And Ryoma noticed that his wife was way faster and her attack was much more powerful than they should be, truly an intriguing concept to say the least….

'Ohh as i thought, this much won't make him budge'

Seeing that her attack was useless, she used both of her legs to kick his shield and propel herself backwards in an attempt to create distance for another charge.

"Not a chance!"

Though before she managed to land, she saw that her man was already rushing towards her, trying to strike her down before she successfully stabilized herself on the ground

'Blade… no, he is going to use his shield!'

Her conjecture was proven to be true once again when his blade which was on its way to pierce her stopped mid-swing as he launched a straight into her abdomen using the bladed base of his hammer shield.

"Ugh!!"

She successfully blocked a fatal blow once more using her forearms at the price of being smashed to the colosseum walls, but something odd was felt by her assailant…

'The battle hasn't ended yet?'

His shield stab just a moment ago should've made her bleed hence resulting in his victory, then why hadn't his maid announced it? And the sensation when he hit her didn't feel like he was hitting flesh and bones, but a steel wall…. How was it possible?

'Oh i see…. how cunning~'

The answer was unraveled to him as sight of the woman who was trying to conquer him was revealed as she dashed towards him from the clouds of dust. From the gap of her slightly ripped arms sleeves, he could see something that looked like a barely visible ice layer.

It seemed like she had stealthily conjured ice armor underneath her clothes which didn't disappear when the rules were established as it was created at the same time with her swords.

'A dedicated mad woman is truly terrific!'

From her memories which he had seen, never once she used dirty tactics in a duel like this. But now, she used them one after another for the sole purpose of dominating him on the bed! That was really worthy of praise!

"Save your sweet words for later~" The one in question heard his inner praise but decided to shut him up with a horizontal slash using both of her swords simultaneously from his left flank, even though she still felt quite sweet inside.

"My bad~" He smiled subtly as he skillfully deflected her attack to the ground then followed up with an upward slash.

"Tough luck…."

Though he only managed to cut the visor of her military cap as she back stepped at the perfect timing.

"You…" his nonchalant response made his Ice General quite annoyed as she began barraging him with more fervent slashes which forced him into the defensive as not only her attacks had become wilder, they unexpectedly became more devious too as they came from unpredictable directions, and one slip of focus would be his doom!

But still, his defense was impenetrable, showing that Byron's battle experience wasn't for naught!

Again, again, and again her strikes were deflected or blocked by his shield and he even occasionally managed to deliver a counter attack with his blade. Some surprisingly succeeded in scoring a clean hit but fortunately for her, they only scratched her armor which made him click his tongue every time it happened.

This deadly stalemate lasted for a while until an opportunity showed itself to the Ice General as she saw a gap in his defense and thrusted the sword in her right hand towards his jaw.

But her prey successfully dodged her coup de grace by tilting his head slightly to the right and she was now the one trapped in a clutch as he used this chance to deliver an upward slash aiming towards her left arm joints, one of the few gaps in her armor.

'This is the end!'

'Indeed, It's your end!' Even then, the woman whose arm was going to be severed just grinned, and upon seeing that, her man knew that something was wrong as he immediately leaned his head alongside his body backwards in an attempt to evade her sword which he had dodged prior…..

SLASH!

[BATTLE ENDED!]

The imperial colosseum started to turn into a blur, returning them into the grassy plains where they stood before their spar as the battle finally came to an end for the first blood had been spilt!

It dripped from Ryoma's slitted left cheek and gushed like a broken faucet from Esdeath's left arm stump...

[CONGRATULATIONS FOR WINNING THIS SPAR!]

And the winner had been decided!