Chapter 11 : One stubborn bastard

"Challenged to a duel? I'm not even given the option to decline? Well atleast its better than being attacked by the group all a once i guess"

Not long after the first screen appeared another followed it with it displaying the information for the duel.

The duel was a 1v1 that can be won by either your opponent forfeiting, leaving or being forced out of the grounds of the Shrine, being knocked unconscious and or having their Epitome be completely drained.

"Epitome? I'm going to need a little more to go on than that floating screen..."

As if hearing her complain another screen shortly appeared beside the first one.

"Epitome is a aura made out of a purer form of mana that is generated alongside normal mana within any living being. The Epitome acts a shield to any physical and magical forces that would harm the body. The epitome charges slowly over time but the process can be sped up by circulating mana around the body at the cost of a large amount of mana. The Epitome resembles something similar to a very shin pane of stained glass with its colour varying depending on the person or creature and is only ever visible after being damaged"

"is this normal for you to be able answer my questions like this?

while "chatting" with the floating screen she didn't notice a 10 second timer appear between herself and the man she had forgotten about.

patiently waiting for the timer to reach zero the man stayed in the same stance he took at the beginning without moving a inch.

as the timer hit zero the man flicked his spare hand upwards causing a purple aura to appear around him and his sword momentarily causing him to move slightly faster.

Rushing towards the Demon girl who was still staring at one of the now many screen surrounding her the man raised his sword and swung from his right towards the back of the girls neck.

Just as the sword was about to strike her neck the girls own sword suddenly shot around behind her and blocked the strike with the back of the blade.

"Wha-" confused he tried to speak but he was interrupted by the girl kicking him in the stomach knocking the wind out of him and sending him stumbling backwards.

As he regained his balance he looked up towards the girl only to lock eyes with her as she gave him a annoyed expression before turning back towards the many screens as her Katana floated back to her hand.

"Are you serious? What kind of boss are you?First you look just like any other demon, then you can only be fought in a duel and now you won't even fight me?

Getting into a more defensive stance He attacked again this time aiming for her lower left leg while still keeping his guard ready.

however just like before his blade was easily intercepted by her sword which flew out her hand yet again and despite his attempts to block he was kicked in his right shoulder and left leg causing him to fall over and drop his sword.

Giving him the same expression as before the girl picked up his sword using the same magic used on her own and planted it next to him before returning her attention back to the screens.

Getting back to his feet midnight picked up his sword and tried attacking again.

this repeated many times only for his legs to be swept out from under him every time, in fact the girl even added a extra kick for every attempt he tried to attack her.

While the kicks didn't do a huge amount of damage to him it still did a decent amount of damage to his Epitome despite the kicks not being Infused with mana they still hurt.

only after the girl performed a 17 kick chain on him did his Epitome finally break leaving him a exhausted and defeated mess on the floor.

During the man's pathetic attempts of attacking Kuro Chi had been doing her best to try and squeeze as much information out of the screens as possible but even then there wasn't much to go on.

all she was able to find out was some further details on the duals rules and that her current location was called "The Bridge of Eternity".

However one thing that stood out in the duals rules that wasn't previously explained was that depending on what side won the dual that side would be rewarded.

The rewards were very biased with the challenging side apparently getting a single wish from any primordial god of their choosing.

"I don't know much about this world still but I don't think I should be letting anyone win for the time being as a wish from a god seems just a little powerful to be handing out to people..."

Despite the obvious favouritism her end of the deal wasn't too bad either.

her reward could be anything she wished for within reason however depending on how big the wish was it could take multiple wins to get.

Looking over towards her opponent she chuckled a little seeing his condition before walking back over towards the shrine while giving a small wave behind her.

Seeing the girl walk away the group quickly picked up Midnight who was barely conscious and carried him off the shrine grounds as few words appeared above the shrine.

"The challenger has been defeated and the Guardian remains Standing. The guardian shall now await the next challenger."

While a few people picked up midnight and carried him away the rest of the group covered them and watched the girl as she walked over to the shrine and leaned her back against the wall while inspected her sword.

After the people carrying midnight were a safe distance away the other part of the group followed them.

"How is he? He looked like he took a beating out there" Gentle Asked one of the healing mages who was checking his injuries.

"Well his Epitome is completely drained and he is pretty roughed up but he doesn't have any real injuries. However he's probably in alot of pain after all those kicks so we might want to let him rest for a bit.

He will be out of action for a bit so that leaves you in charge, what do we do about her?"

The Mage asked as she looked over towards the girl who was still relaxing against the shrine wall without a care in the world.

"did anyone get to read that text that appeared above the shrine?"

looking over the whole group it seemed that no one read the text in time before it disappeared.

seeing no one step forward Echo sighed before approaching the front of the group.

"I read it in time. It said The challenger has been defeated and the Guardian remains Standing. The Guardian shall now await the next Challenger"

"Wait... did you say Guardian? as in a Site of power Guardian?"

Nodding in confirmation many people in the group started to talk amongst themselves.

"If this is true we need to send a message back to the guild right now. A primordial Site of worship are exceedingly rare especially considering what Midnight told us before the start of the fight.

A Guardian of a site of worship has never been a boss in a dungeon before so this could be the first one of its kind..."

"Echo send a mana letter to the guild now and inform them of this, as for all of us we will remain here and try and to gain whatever information we can.

So far what we know from what Midnight said before the start if the duel is that she will only fight us in a duel and that she's a Guardian however we don't know of which God.

"Commander i have a suggestion" said a relatively short girl with long indigo hair who had a spear on her back.

"let's hear it then"

"My Affinity let's me comprehend and speak languages others know even ones I have never heared of before. when we first tried to speak with her she seemed confused so maybe she doesn't speak our language.

so I would like to request to attempt to speak with her by using my magic affinity"