Despite being basically dead, the moment Elyscia saw Avelyn standing for a duel, she had a headache. She didn’t expect that she would do something this outrageous. What even happened? How did things escalate so fast?
“Isn’t that your associate, Lady Elyscia?” Belle said.
Elyscia frowned in displeasure. This girl was garnering too much attention, too many eyes. They’d never know if there was someone that could potentially see through the illusion. It was unlikely, but still, not really completely impossible. Just having too many eyes on you was very risky. This was so stupid.
Elyscia resisted the urge to click her tongue in annoyance.
“That’s your associate?” Sia asked curiously. “Why is she out picking fights?”
Elyscia stepped over and approached Avelyn, firmly placing a hand on her shoulder. Avelyn slowly looked at the hand on her shoulder, then at Elyscia’s face, and she formed an annoyed scowl.
“What are you doing, Avelyn?” Elyscia whispered sternly.
“About to fight.”
“Why? You’re catching too much attention to yourself.”
“Someone has to learn their lesson.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Stop this.”
Avelyn pushed off her hand. “I will not let anyone mock me further.”
“Mock you?”
“They have gone too far.” Anger was evident in her eyes. “I tried to ignore them, but they just won’t let up.”
“So you ended up punching someone…?!” she exclaimed in a whisper.
“It was the only way to shut him up. Just so you know, I held back.”
“That doesn’t matter. You still punched someone.”
Her eyes widened, as if she was outraged hearing that. “Ah! Doesn’t matter? This matters!”
“Call off the duel.”
Avelyn shook her head. “Stop being annoying. Besides, there is no way I’m stopping now. They’ll only insult me more. I’ll beat my foe to a pulp.”
“Avelyn…”
She smirked. “Don’t worry. I won’t kill him.”
“That’s not the problem here—”
“What do we have here? Is that you, Elyscia?”
Upon hearing that familiar, annoying voice, Elyscia slowly exhaled.
Why am I not surprised it’s him…?
Elyscia turned around towards the man with a blank expression. He knew this man back at the capital, and she understood that he was sometimes quite condescending. An arrogant person that Elyscia would prefer to avoid. They were not close, they only sometimes interacted. They met here in this city last time, and he would always try to talk to her when he had a chance. In an annoying manner, in fact. Elyscia would try her best to avoid him.
“Edren… It’s been a while.”
He smirked as his group stood on both his sides. “I didn’t know you were back.”
“I didn’t expect you’d still be here.”
“It’s fun here. Boring being in the capital.”
“And you are troubling my subordinate.”
“Oh! She’s your subordinate. I thought she was Mister Osonia’s.”
“... Were you the one she punched?”
The smile disappeared from his face. “She doesn't play a fair game.”
“And you seem fine. Hm, she hurt you so much you have to use healing magic?” Avelyn might say she held back, but even holding back, she would still pack a punch. She was not even clear how much she held back. “You’ve been lax.”
He growled in irritation. “This isn’t your business, Elyscia. Step away, and I’ll end this.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“You have no say in this. We’re already here, so let’s get this over with.”
Avelyn, growing impatient, placed a hand on Elyscia’s shoulder and pulled her back. “I told you, there’s no going back.”
Elyscia glared down at Avelyn. “Don’t overdo it. Don’t do more damage than you already had.”
“... I haven’t done any damage yet.”
She’s not getting it at all.
With a click of her tongue, Elyscia stepped back to the crowd, growing anxious. Not for Avelyn, or for her enemies, or for anyone here, but anxiousness towards their mistress. If things go wrong, or if the mistress would be displeased hearing about this, the three of them might get punished. Disappointing and angering the mistress was already bad enough.
“Elyscia, is everything fine?” Sia asked.
“... Nothing too bad yet.” She crossed her arms, looking intently at the displeasing event that was about to unfold.
Edren received his sword with a cocky grin. “I’ll teach you a lesson for messing with me.”
The spectators moved back, giving the duelists more space to fight. Everyone appeared to be eager to watch the battle. This might be quite entertaining for the audience — a well-known knight captain and some unknown girl.
One of Edren’s friends stepped in between them as a referee.
“Remember! No use of magic, just pure skills. Whosoever violates this rule will be declared as the loser. And ultimately, no killing! When one person is down, only then will the match be over.” He stepped back to the spectators’ side and raised his hand.
Avelyn gripped her sword with both hands, and Edren used only one hand for his, exuding an air of utter confidence. Or perhaps that was just his arrogance on display. Avelyn, however, looked focused. No… Elyscia guessed she was just thinking seriously about how to play with the man.
Just get it over with, Avelyn.
The referee brought down his hand, and the match began. However, instead of charging towards each other, Avelyn slowly approached him, as if taking her time. However, Edren was just too cocky to do something like that.
“You insulted me, mocked me,” Avelyn said. “I’ll humiliate you ten times over.”
“Hahaha! Just try, little girl.”
Her face contorting in displeasure for a moment, Avelyn gripped her sword so tightly that she trembled. She lightly swung her sword, and Edren casually deflected it. The girl swung again, but the man would casually swing it away. Feeling even more confident, Edren’s smile widened.
However, Avelyn kept a straight face.
“Is that all you got?” Edren said with a brief, condescending chuckle.
“... I should be asking that question. You hit my sword like a little girl.”
“What’s that?!” He took a step forward and did a heavy swing, and Avelyn held out her sword to block it. The blades clanged loudly. “If I go all out on you, you’ll die. You’re weak and useless. That’s why you were thrown in the ditch like trash.”
Avelyn’s face darkened. Suddenly, she casually parried off Edren’s sword and swiftly thrust her sword forward. However, the blade stopped just right before it hit his eye.
“W-What?” His eyes widened as he froze in place.
“You would be dead by now, worm.”
Edren stepped back, his face contorting in irritation. “You think I’d lose to the likes of you?” He engaged, swinging his sword down at her.
Avelyn stepped to the side and dodged the blade before stepping forward. With incredible swiftness, she tilted her sword and seemingly lightly pushed the hilt into Edren’s chest. Metal clanged as it made contact with his armor, and he was pushed backward.
“What the…?” He was confused, surprised that he was pushed back with such a simple action.
Avelyn took a step backward. “What? Don’t tell me that little tap hurts you.”
His eyes narrowed, glaring daggers at Avelyn. Holding his sword with both hands, he continued to attack Avelyn. The latter dodged and then parried his following attack. In an instant, Avelyn tilted her sword again and lightly bashed her sword’s bottom hilt to the side of his head.
“Ah!” He staggered sideways, wincing in pain. But that hit was nothing too dangerous. And he was not even bleeding.
“You’re too slow.”
Indeed, that man was too slow. Even he was slow in Elyscia’s eyes. However, this was not always the case. In the past, they might have been equals. But this time, it was now significantly different.
“Screw you!”
Outraged, Edren lashed out at Avelyn. He aggressively charged towards her, and relentlessly swung his blade, but Avelyn would swiftly dodge and use the hilt to hit him on the other side of the head. Edren groaned in utter irritation before charging in again.
But no matter how much, how fast he attacked, he just couldn’t land a direct hit on the girl. He looked quite pathetic, almost like a child trying to spar against an adult knight.
“What’s going on here?” one of the crowd asked.
“That captain is losing?”
“Who is that girl?”
The crowd was both confused and dumbfounded to see that someone highly ranked was being beaten around.
His attacks would get evaded or parried so easily, like Avelyn was just swatting away a fly while looking completely unbothered. She would easily sneak through his attacks, bludgeoning him on the back, the side of his body, to the front. He was being played around like a doll. It gradually escalated, where Avelyn would hit him directly in the face with her hilt, then afterwards, with her fists.
Edren staggered backward, but maintained his feet. “T-There, there’s no way I’m losing! Never!” He shouted.
Stepping forward, Avelyn hit him in the face again and again. To the point that he seemed to start feeling highly dizzy. His face swelled and turned red, with blooding coming out of every tear on his flesh, and from his nose. He breathed heavily. Avelyn hit him in the face again. She hit him so hard that his legs faltered, and he started to fall. However, she caught him on the armor by the collar, keeping him upright.
“Hold on, we’re not done yet. Don’t go falling unconscious now.”
The man lifted his sword and tried to swing it at her. But he missed.
“That’s the spirit.” She gripped his armor, keeping him in place, and started hitting his face with the hilt of her sword.
Watching it all, Elyscia’s frown grew deeper. This was the exact thing that she warned Avelyn about.
Avelyn hit Edren’s bloody face. “This is for underestimating me! Making fun of me. Don’t look down on me ever again!”
“You bitch!” shouted one of Edren’s crew. “Stop that right now! It’s over!”
Avelyn paused, glancing at the man. “Over? He’s not yet down, is he?” She hit Edren in the face again.
“Damn you!” The knight pulled out his sword, and was then followed by a couple more of his allies.
They charged at her with killing intent. Avelyn pushed Edren to the ground before engaging one opponent. She parried his sword and then grabbed his head, jumping before driving him into the ground. Another one stepped in, and she hit him in the face with her hilt, and he staggered back to the ground. The last one raised his sword, and Avelyn blocked it with her blade.
Elyscia gave up, there was no de-escalating this now. At least, she could not. This had spiraled out of control.
Avelyn was about to attack when a shout interrupted the battle.
“Stop this right now!” It was Gavin, along with a seemingly high-ranking knight as well.
Avelyn paused before pushing back the one she was fighting. She lowered her sword as Gavin approached her with a furious expression.
He looked down at Edren sprawled on the ground. His face was a mess and bloodied, but he was still alive and breathing.
“What the hell is going on here?” Gavin shifted his stern gaze towards Avelyn.