Chapter 67: Chapter 62 – Bullying Bullies

"People always try to look for a reason for failure that is not themselves. Always." - Anonymous saying

 

The corridors within the Institute's stadium were kept dim, with only sparse enchanted panels lit to provide magical lighting when not in use. When Cal had walked these same corridors earlier when she entered the stadium, all the panels were lit, which made the corridors bright as day.

 

Garth had remained at the balcony along with Fibuela as a guard just in case. Meanwhile, Celeysria, Aideen, Vark, and Salicia had descended into the corridors, and quickly closed to the location where the one-eyed woman had detected the intruders with her magic.

 

Due to the relatively cramped quarters of the corridor - enough for two humans to walk abreast, but would be an uncomfortable fit for three - Cal had two of her dwarven knives in hand instead of her trusty halberd. Aideen similarly wielded her staff in its three-sectioned form, and Vark had a mace in hand for self defense. Salicia on the other hand, wielded a pair of weapons Cal recognized as Al-Shan weapons called Deer Horn Knives in reverse grip, since her bow would be hard to use in the corridor.

 

Salicia had told Vark when he asked that she acquired one such weapon during the Empire's invasion of what was now the Coalition of City-States centuries ago, and had used one ever since.

 

The four of them advanced with quiet steps as the neared the location where Salicia detected the intruders last, and as they crossed a bend, they saw eye to eye with said intruders, as one of them happened to face the direction they arrived from.

 

In the instant before all hell broke loose, Cal took a quick glimpse at the four well-built, masked individuals, two of whom were in the middle of setting up an array of alchemical vials next to a blindfolded, bound and gagged woman. The other two had stood guard with weapons already in hand, and the other guard turned towards them when he noticed the expression on his partner's face from across the corridor.

 

Cal noticed that earth had started to rise around one of the two masked men near the vials, so she threw herself at the nearest guard, while Aideen headed for the other one. Just as she took a couple of steps, she felt the wind blow as a javelin-sized arrow flew past her and skewered the other vial-setting masked men sideways through both his shoulders. The arrow pinned him firmly to the wall as he screamed.

 

She saw the other masked man stumble as he rose since his feet were already encased in stone by then, and left him to Vark. For her own part, she batted aside the guard's sword with the knife in her left hand, and hurled her other knife through the man's left shoulder. With one swift motion, she drew a shortsword from its sheath with her now empty hand and severed the man's right hand at the wrist.

 

The man collapsed to his knees when she followed up with a vicious knee strike at his nether regions, and plopped to the ground as a twitching mess.

 

As she took a quick look around she noticed that Vark had his target firmly encased in stone up to the neck, while the one Salicia pinned to the wall still screamed in pain. Aideen had apparently treated her masked man as a stress relief tool, when Cal considered how the man knelt before her with his head clutched as he trembled.

 

Cal approached the masked man Vark had immobilized as Aideen checked the vials, Salicia took her place over the prone form of the masked man to make sure he stayed down. As she ripped off the man's mask, Cal was faced with an angry mien that stared at her with gritted teeth and loathing, a face that she recognized. One of the Iznuguod prince's personal guards.

 

Meanwhile, a quick inspection by Aideen informed them that most of the vials contained a relatively unstable - if powerful - alchemical explosive. One vial in the middle had a more stable solution which could be ignited gradually in a timed manner with the introduction of a different reagent. As Aideen quickly rifled through one of the men's storage artifacts, she found said reagent, and many more vials of explosive reagents within.

 

She estimated that they had enough to set a similar array under half of the balconies in the stadium, and the explosion that ensued would have been more than enough to demolish the balcony in question.

 

The bound and gagged woman was unconscious, and was a young therian, so they carried her with them as they made their way back to where Garth was. The four masked men, Vark had shackled and gagged with stone to keep them quiet, and was similarly brought along.

 

They reached the balcony just in time to catch a glimpse of the end of Willa's match in the tournament, as the young half-therian relied on her armor, dropped on all fours, and charged through the fireball and wall of fire spells her opponent had set. The fire mage she faced was flabbergasted by her charge and got rammed head on, which threw him out of the stage with several broken bones.

 

"Our intruders. Also our dear prince's missing guards." Aideen said to Garth as she seated herself. "You recognize the girl?"

 

"Give me a moment." Garth said as his brows furrowed in thought while he scrutinized the girl's features. "I think I do, yes. New first year student from Boroes. That rare shade of fur is pretty hard to forget."

 

The therian in question looked like a honey badger in features, but her fur had shades of bronze and gold instead of the common white and black. The shade of fur hinted that she was related to the royal family of Boroes, where it was most commonly found.

 

"Should we investigate them now?" Fibuela asked from the side as she eyed the captives.

 

"Nah, let's do that later." Aideen said. "I'll eat my shirt if that prince of theirs ain't related to this, and he's up next, so why not watch the show first?"

 

"Ought to be amusing." The Unliving woman finished her words with a smirk.

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Giselle was somewhat nervous, yet at the same time strangely eager as she walked up the steps towards the stage. What awaited her on the stage was none other than prince Legault of Iznuguod, the figure she knew was the one responsible for her family's misery of the past two years. The figure she would take perverse delight in as she trampled his smug face into the ground.

 

The prince has an arrogant look on his arguably handsome features as he waited for her to come up the stage. His multicolored, striped clothing with poofy sleeves and a flashy, tasteful codpiece ensured he would have attracted attention wherever he went. He wore a broad-brimmed hat decorated with large feathers to shade his face from the midday sun. In his hand he held a mage's wand, to show that he fully trusted his magic prowess to carry the day.

 

In contrast, Giselle looked more like a mercenary soldier than a mage in her leather lamellar armor, a picture that only intensified as she drew her swords out of their sheaths and signalled her readiness to start at the referee.

 

Legault threw her a mocking leer once the referee signalled the start of the match, and with a flick of his arm, a fireball half as wide as a man was tall headed Giselle's way.

 

Only to find thin air at the end of its path, the agile woman had leapt to the side and slowly walked towards her opponent with a grim look that promised vengeance in her eyes. A small part of Giselle screamed in fear at her, a remembrance of the searing heat that tormented her when a similar fireball struck her head on during the last year's tournament.

 

That timid, slightly cowardly immature girl was long gone by now, as instead confidence and self-assurance filled her. She strolled casually towards the prince, each fireball he threw her way, she avoided with ease.

 

Disdain filled her features when he started to panic as she drew closer, and this time he focused his magic to his utmost and launched multiple fireballs packed close to one another, which gave her no room to avoid it.

 

So she just sliced the fire apart with her swords instead and walked through as it parted before her.

 

The prince had stammered in disbelief at the - to him - unthinkable scene that unfolded before his eyes. Giselle gave him no chance to voice out a surrender, as she grabbed his throat with one hand, and slammed him viciously into the ground with a brutal throw.

 

Whatever his next words were, they were cut off into screams of agony when Giselle stomped his knees until the joint broke, and she had no plans to stop there.

 

He threw a small fireball from his prone position, which she just swatted away like a fly. The action had caused the referee - who was about to intercede at that time - to pause, which gave Giselle all the time she needed.

 

Under the horrified eyes of most of the audience, she raised her foot and stomped down hard on the prince's nether regions. The stomp was so heavy that the stone of the arena below cracked apart, and she twisted her foot left and right for good measure.

 

A look of grim satisfaction flashed across her face as the prince wailed like a sow being slaughtered.

 

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"Oooo, nice!" Commented Aideen with a grin as the referee ran into the arena and pried the combatants apart.

 

"You told her to do that, didn't you?" Cal asked as she eyed the Unliving woman skeptically.

 

"Maybe~" Was the noncommital response she got.

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