Chapter 46 - A Quick Match

<p>One thing was certain — I didn't have enough info on the swordsman, Ezio. I knew his stats were decent, but that was it. No idea about how he fought, what his Skill did.<br/><br/> "Fuck, I forgot I could Analyze Skills," I mutter, facepalming suddenly. The elderly Dwarf pats my back gently. "I will see you around, Liwuukay. I am excited for your match tomorrow."<br/><br/> "Thanks. Wait, that's not… old man?" I turned to clarify my 'name,' but he had already disappeared.<br/><br/> "The hell…? Do I have schizophrenia in this life or something?" I wonder to myself, standing to leave.<br/><br/> I have to push the thought out of my mind. "Shit, Eniyala's match starts in 5 minutes!" I bound up the steps towards the exit, slipping my way — sometimes literally — through the small procession of people exiting. Some would stay to wait for the next match, while others would leave to go spectate others or specific matches they wished to see.<br/><br/> Two minutes later, I made it to the meeting point, where Lynsel was fidgeting nervously. "Klum! I mean…" he raises his voice. "… I mean Liwuukay! What took you so long? I was about to leave!"<br/><br/> I gave him a weird look. "Why are YOU calling me that now, too? And sorry, this other match took too long. Let's go."<br/><br/> As we begin walking at a high pace, Lynsel scratches his head. "I mean, you clearly want to hide your identity, so you gave a fake name, right? Maybe it's to protect yourself!" As Lynsel begins imagining fake scenarios, I shake my head defeatedly.<br/><br/> "Eniyala is never going to let me live this down," I tell myself depressedly, as we enter the stadium for her match.<br/><br/><br/> As Lynsel and I find seats, the match is just beginning. I've barely had Lynsel scoot to take two seats worth so he doesn't crush me before the countdown starts. <br/><br/> "THREE!"<br/><br/> "TWO!"<br/><br/> "ONE!"<br/><br/> "BEGINNN!!!"<br/><br/> Immediately, Eniyala holds up her rod, pointing the end at her opponent. Her face is calm, as always, as five long, fiery blue spears form around her head out of fire sigils. Her opponent dashes forward, and I activate Analyze+ to see what she's going up against, skimming most of the details.<br/><br/> "A Thief Class?" I wonder, and Lynsel perks up. "Wow! That's pretty rare," he notes, and I inspect the man closer.<br/><br/> As he approaches Eniyala, his handsome face twists upwards in an overly kind smile. "Hey sweetheart, don't take it personally, but I have to knock you out, 'kay?" He whips his short orange hair out of his face, moving to swipe up with the dagger in an unpredictable movement at the same time.<br/><br/> She sees it coming, though, and leaps backwards as she sends two of the spears flying forwards. Her face stays as neutral as ever as he dodges sideways easily, still grinning. "Unfortunately, I can only steal Skills, not Spells, so you have a bit of an advantage over me right now."<br/><br/> I facepalm again. "What the hell is up with these people? He really pulled the bad guy who spills the evil plan or special move too early cliché," I groan.<br/><br/> "The what cliché?"<br/><br/> "Don't worry about it, you big macho pillow."<br/><br/> We turn our attention back to the fight when Eniyala unleashes the last three spears, and golden bands appear around her wrists, ankles and waist, snapping down to cling tightly to her. The bodysuit of her and my matching armor sets are tight to the skin, but the application of the magic still draws the Thief's eyes down with a low whistle. <br/><br/> She capitalizes on the distraction, leaping forward and throwing out accelerated punches that he can barely dodge. He is only Level 12, so Eniyala quickly begins to overpower him. His charming smile turns into a growl as he swipes with his blade at Eniyala's face. She catches his wrist, twisting until he falls to his knees in a cry of pain.<br/><br/> "Crazy bitch! You broke my damn hand!"<br/><br/> "You aren't giving up?" Eniyala's first words of the match are cold and calculated, and I smile slightly. She was one ruthless lady, alright.<br/><br/> He doesn't seem intimidated, struggling his way back up to his feet, punching at air. <br/><br/> "Just use a Skill already!" He roars, turning around furiously.<br/><br/> The last thing he sees is Eniyala's middle finger pointing in his face.<br/><br/> "My favorite trick," I laugh as a large fist made of blue flames, with its middle finger extended, crashes down onto the man in a boosted explosion.<br/><br/> "The victor is Eniyala Ignios!" The announcer cries out, and the spattered cheering of the crowd joins into a joined screech as people clap, yell and bang on things to make themselves heard. I sit back, crossing my arms as she looks around, her eyes locking on the both of us. I grin, and Lynsel waves, but all she does is nod before the dome turns black.<br/><br/> "That sure was quick," I note, remembering that our spar lasted a bit longer.<br/><br/> "Her last opponent was late, so ya got ta see the end of it, but she finished her first match in around the same amount of time," Lynsel comments. "Plus, that guy seems ta be an unpredictable type of fighter, and she's had plenty of practice."<br/><br/> I laugh, brushing imaginary dust off my shoulder. "That's true, I guess she has."<br/><br/> We both stand, heading to the back door to meet up with her.<br/> <br/> "What the fuck?" I gasp as a large crowd of young men wait excitedly by the door. All of them hold a pen and something to write on, though not all of them have the latter, and instead grip the edge of their shirt or the waistband of their pants. 'This wouldn't end well in a thousand universes.'<br/><br/> Before I can move to do anything, the door swings open, and the boys clamor over themselves to get closer. A unified groan escapes them all as they back off a second later, parting to kick the loser of the match out of the group. The Thief tries to fight against the young kids throwing him around, but there are simply too many, and he is soon tossed to the side — literally.<br/><br/> "Fucking brats," he mutters as he tries to bump my shoulder forcefully, but I don't budge. "The fu- hey, you got a problem, Scrawny?"<br/><br/> I raise an eyebrow, side-eyeing the man in contempt. "I didn't try to bump into you, man. What's your malfunction?"<br/><br/> "Mal-what?" He mutters, stepping closer. "Anyway, apologize unless you want me to put your face in the dirt."<br/><br/> My lips are parted to laugh at him, but his face instantly loses all its color as he looks at something over my shoulder in fright. Quickly dusting off my shoulder, he mumbles an apology and scurries away. <br/><br/> Wondering what that was all about, I glance over my shoulder to see Lynsel, hulking over me with an angry glare.<br/><br/> Several of the boys in the group by the door scoot further away and avoid eye contact at the beast standing over my shoulder, but after spending enough time with him all I saw was an angry puppy.<br/><br/> Unknownst to me, an exaggerated rumor would quickly spread about Liwuukay's ape of a bodyguard, and that anyone who tried to fight Liwuukay outside of the arena would have to deal with an angry Beserker the size of a baby Giant.<br/><br/> The door opens slowly, and Eniyala appears from behind it this time. The boys don't hesitate, converging on the door and speaking all at once.<br/><br/> I step forward to begin pulling them away, but a flash of blue blinds everyone for a second before a giant blue fire snake rears its head above the crowd, scaring all the childish boys away. One remains, staring up at the snake in awe. It lowers its head, staring down the kid as its burning tongue licks around the boy, but a small hand on its head causes it to dissipate slowly.<br/><br/> "Well, look at this fearless one," Eniyala states, walking up to him. "What's your name?"<br/><br/> The boy brushes his jet black, eye-level bangs out of his face. "Yorun. I like your flames. And your snake," he replies with the same even tone.<br/><br/> I give the smallish boy a onceover. He's barely any taller than the 5'2" girl, probably 5'5", and looks like he barely eats. Peeking from behind his shaggy dark hair, the tips of his ears are slightly pointed. 'An Elf? No, Half-Elf, I think.' He looks to be about my age, maybe a bit younger, but I didn't know what that translated to in Elf years.<br/><br/> He and Eniyala continue chatting, and Eniyala even smiles. A tugging feeling in my chest pulls me forward, interrupting their conversation. "Well, who's this young'un!" I say loudly, splitting them apart subtly.<br/><br/> "I'm Yorun," He replies bluntly. "Also, I'm older than you, so I don't know about 'young'un.'"<br/><br/> "How old?" I ask, earning a look from Eniyala, which I expertly ignore.<br/><br/> "I'm 21."<br/><br/> "Ah— yeah, that'll do it," I sigh, still ignoring Eniyala's stare, which was now smug.<br/><br/> She exchanges Lines with him so that they could continue to communicate before walking over to us with a small smile on her face.<br/><br/> "What?" She snaps at my stare, and I just shrug. "You tell me," I reply, and she rolls her eyes.<br/><br/> "Shut up," she says simply, giving a happy wave to Lynsel, who returns the gesture.<br/><br/> We return to the inn for a large meal before heading off to our respective rooms. Lynsel monitors me to ensure I don't drink too much, forcing me to only have two mugs of ale and half a mug of mead, which he quickly snatched away when he realized.<br/><br/> With my belly warm and full, I lay back on the bed, sinking into the mattress. I pat my flat stomach with a smile. "I can eat as much as I want and not get all pudgy," I say slowly, giving it a loud smack before dropping my shirt.<br/><br/> The big problem for my next match was that I had no information on my opponent, except that he was a traditional Samurai who valued honor, and apparently women. <br/><br/> "So all I have for his weakness is that he's a simp," I groan, rolling over to look at the night sky. I stare at the dark clouds rolling in front of the moon, as if trying to steal its light away. However, the moon is many more sizes than any cloud, dwarfing it effortlessly. <br/><br/> "Huh," I mutter. "Yeah, I'll try that move tomorrow, maybe…"<br/><br/> And with that, I was pulled into the deep swamp of my unconsciousness.</p>