Chapter 136: Chapter 128: The world that stands still

Aranea saw how Bel approached Tiny, stopping behind the wolf hag, allowing her to catch her breath. The Alpha pack’s wolfkin simply stood, leaning on her toes, with a smug smile on her snout. Tiny tensed, feeling a presence behind her. Clenching her fists, Tiny looked at her feet, noticing another shadow next to her own.

Tiny spun in place, hitting back with an elbow. The strike narrowly missed Bel’s face, sliding across her fur instead of reaching the nose. Circling around Tiny, Bel had struck the smaller woman with a quick hook across the ribs, forcing the smaller wolfkin to gasp for air. There was no follow-up attack, instead, the wolf hag simply stopped in place, elegantly checking her sunglasses with a single finger.

Tiny used this brief respite to land on her knees, coughing up blood on the floor. The moment Bel’s finger touched her sunglasses, Tiny struck out with her left leg. Once again, Bel retreated, allowing Tiny’s leg to just briefly touch her fur.

Seeing how Tiny jumped back on, following after Bel, Aranea frowned. The difference between the two wolf hags wasn’t as big as before. Sure, Bel was higher by a good fifteen centimeters and had years upon years of combat experience over the other woman due to the difference in age, but… Her evasion skills were insane, she could always gauge the perfect distance to step away, allowing Tiny’s punches to hit the mere emptiness of the air.

Bel toyed with Tiny for a half of a minute, dodging fifty-eight punches in total, never once using either of her paws to block. Tiny growled in infuriation, slamming her foot into the stone and kicking some into Bel’s face.

This time, Bel had to use her paws to block the stone. The smile was gone from a pretty snout, her nostrils angrily exhaled air at the sight of another punch aimed at her face. Bel grabbed Tiny by the wrist, jerking the attack to the side, and followed up with a grab.

Aranea raised her brows. Yes, it was a simple grab. With her left paw, Bel grabbed the shirt and fur underneath Tiny’s ribs. And hurled her.

Wait, what?! Aranea stood up, refusing to believe her eyes. By all rights, Bel’s grab should have torn flesh off Tiny. Or slip. Or tear her shirt and fur away. What it should absolutely not have done was lift the woman in the air. Still holding Tiny, Bel made a small half-circle in the air with her body, slamming the wolfkin into the floor with enough force to create cracks in the stone slab.

Tiny gasped for air, this time for real, twitching and jerking with all her body. She hadn't had enough time to gather her body or turn to the side, no, Bel’s cruel throw slammed the woman into stone at full speed, sending shock through her every bone, causing the organs to tremble because of the violent shaking of blood.

This move before… Bel jerked her arm away to throw Tiny off her feet! And this is why Tiny could not do anything against the throw. Aranea understood, seeing Bel standing over the downed opponent. A single throw. That’s all it took to overcome Tiny entirely.

"Impressive," Till Ingo uttered, his lenses giving out a whining sound as the man zoomed in on the fighters. "A little bit easier, and Tiny would have been able to stand up. A bit heavier, and her organs would rupture."

"Hm. Told you," Alpha smiled wickedly, "Today’s night belongs to the Alpha team."

"Is that so?" Aranea asked, pointing at Annie, who had thrown away an unconscious woman and looked at Bel's back.

"You aren’t half-bad," Bel extended a paw to Tiny, "Want to learn the throws?"

"S…Sure…" Tiny gasped, spitting out blood. With a trembling paw, she had reached for Bel’s pants, ignoring the offer of surrender, "Later. We are not done…"

"Oh, for the love of…" Bel rolled her eyes and moved her right leg, allowing her foot to move underneath the other woman’s chest. She had kicked her up in the air, almost gently, and punched with both palms, sending Tiny to fall on one of the tables outside of the arena, "You showed courtesy once, and they already think they can win. People just don’t know when to take an L. Am I right, Annie?"

The woman turned around, lifting her finger to correct the sunglasses one more time. In this moment, Annie was on her, punching her straight in the face. What happened next confused Aranea. Annie was in full striking distance, her punch should have reached Bel’s face, crushing both bones and fangs alike like a wooden block…

Instead, the punch stopped a millimeter away from her face. No, not stopped. Aranea’s eyes widened in realization. Bel took a step back at the very last moment, gauging the distance between the two fighters perfectly.

"I half thought you were going to cripple the girl." Annie told Bel, stepping away.

"Cripple… I no longer have any interest in any of that trifle," Bel shook her head, "It’s good that you came to me, Annie. It irks me to admit it, the realization boils my very insides, but truth is truth. You are one of the few people who can compete with Virginia and win," She smiled sadly, looking at the pile of unconscious bodies that Virginia had gathered, making herself a throne to sit on, "And for Virginia’s victory, I will stop you, here and now."

"Her victory?" Annie took a step back, spreading her legs wide, "Not going for a win yourself?"

"No. Don’t care about such things anymore. It’s part of the reason why I started practicing restraint after Hecktricktsen clawed away my eyes. Each and every member of the Alpha pack is more worthy to live than me," Bel threw her sunglasses into the audience, looking at Annie with crimson eyes, "I have lost my amber. I am a freak, a monster, a degenerate. Unneeded. But I can still fight for the cause."

"Foolish," Annie had kicked the dust and blood into Bel's eyes, only to have it blocked with a casual sweep, "None of us are unnecessary."

Annie stomped onto the arena, breaking the stone and launching a barrage of blows. Aranea knew full well just how skilled the warlord was in close combat, each punch flowed into an elbow hit, each elbow hit flowed into a gracious shoulder tackle, meant to throw the opponent off balance.

And each of her attacks missed the mark. Bel had weaved around them like a figure made of water, twice attempting to go on the counterattack and twice stopping, not allowing Annie to push a grappling contest between two women.

"How…" Paride stood up, "How is she dodging all of this? Their speed is on par! No, Annie is faster!"

"Years ago, Bel was injured," Alpha smiled, seeing how the wolf hag dodged a round kick by leaning back a centimeter before closing distance on Annie. "Her entire lower body, her eyes—all were gone," The woman had grabbed the warlord and thrown her over herself, "Our cousins agreed to treat her, and while growing vat-grown limbs is easy… What about eyes? Our eyes are not exactly usual."

Annie had landed on both feet, leaning backwards to avoid a kick that was meant to damage her trachea. Both women’s paws moved, weaving a deadly net of kicks between themselves. Bel was the one who retreated, evading Annie’s attempt to grab her.

"The Ice Fangs’ hospitals keep genetic information about each member of their society in case an urgent replacement of an organ or limb is needed to be grown from scratch," Alpha continued, while Bel kept dodging incoming attacks like a ghost. "And these fools gave the doctors the command to give Bel the best medical service possible, without thinking about the consequences. Whose eyes do you think Bel received?"

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"Impossible!" Keyl stood up as well, sniffing the air loudly, "This scent… Small wonder it confused me several times before!"

"Yes," Alpha looked at the arena, "When Bel came back, her sclera was gold for a few months before reverting back to its original color."

"Aw, Annie, you are such a jerk," Bel said warmly to her opponent, "You can't even let me get in a punch. Oh, well, I guess I have to try harder, then."

This time it was Bel who took the lead, flowing from the upright form into a squatting position before the warlord. Annie struck forth with her right leg, aiming to crush Bel’s lower jaw. Nimbly, like ever-shifting water, Bel shifted her axis, evading the kick. With her right paw, Bel had grabbed Annie by the neck, landing a crushing blow under Annie’s ribs with her left paw.

The warlord gasped for air, losing her concentration for a moment. And Bel had capitalized on that, sending the other woman into the stone floor with enough speed to leave a print of Annie’s body in it. Without a second's hesitation, Bel let go of Annie, jumping back before the warlord’s legs could close around her neck.

"Not bad," Annie rolled to the side, gaining distance between the two fighters. She stood up, a swelling on her right side, her back twitching slightly in pain. "Your eyes are amazing, Bel."

"Amazing?" The wolf hag asked in disbelief, bulging veins on her neck, "The world stands still for me, Annie! Can you imagine this… This pitiful excuse for a life, this charade in which I see the world through sliders!? Hah… I really wish you and Virginia had left me for dead back then," She looked at her trembling paw, "This is a freaking abyss of a life. The Spirits had cursed me."

"So you lied to me." Alpha crushed a cup beneath her palm.

"She is overclocked!" Keyl said in shock, "Don’t tell me that lady Bel lived like this for years!"

"Overclocked?" Aranea asked, trying to remember if she ever heard this word from her parents.

"An occasional flaw among ice fangs, " Till Ingo spoke, keeping his gaze on the arena. "Not going into the whole theory about optical muscles, but you are no doubt familiar with this feeling when the world slows down upon using the crimson eye, right, Aranea? Overclocked is a term for ice fangs who have lived in this state since their birth. You can hear normally. You can feel normally. But your vision stretched to infinity. Time flows both normally and abnormally for you, confusing you, throwing you off. Most of these cubs either end up as psychopaths or with severe mental trauma."

"Not anymore," Keyl shook his head, "Doctors found a way to detect this syndrome at the very moment of birth."

"I'm not sure about cursed, but I'm impressed by you," Annie bowed to Bel. "Thank you for this opportunity to hone my skills, Bel."

"Enough chit-chat! For the sake of my pack, you are going down, Annie!"

Annie had obliged this request by lunging at Bel. Just like before, Bel dodged the incoming attack, leaving the warlord to land behind her. The wolf hag started to turn around, her left elbow aimed at the back of Annie’s head…

And in this moment, she got hit. Annie had turned faster than Bel, leaning back to let the swing pass above her and striking with her right leg, landing a crushing hit with her ankle against Bel’s nose. From outside her field of view. The attack smashed the upper lips, crushing two fangs, and went up, breaking the nose as well.

Grabbing Bel by her ponytail, Annie attacked again, forcing the wolf hag to block with her paws. This spelled the final change in their fight. What Bel could see, she could evade. In theory. In reality, Aranea had discovered, Bel had far more issues with fully utilizing her power. She was slower and weaker than Annie. The wolf hag needed a space to properly execute her mad moves. A space that was now denied to her.

Annie wrapped the hair around her wrist, going into full-contact combat against Bel. The mighty paw crashed against Bel’s forearms, leaving dents and bruises, cracking the skin, damaging the bones within. The moment Bel tried to step away, Annie had put her own foot on the wolf hag’s leg, pinning the woman to the ground.

Receiving another hit against her snout, Bel groaned. Her jaws snapped, tearing through her own hair, while she struck Annie with her right knee, sending the warlord off her leg. This move beat the air from Annie, but to Bel, it was even worse. She had trouble breathing, her nose was damaged, the blood poured into her throat, mixing with the incoming air and causing the wolf hag to cough. Her fur became wet with sweat, and her arms increased in size, getting more swollen by the moment.

It was time to finish it. Annie stood up, letting her arms hang like ropes. Seeing this, Bel’s eyes widened in panic.

Annie vanished from her spot. Aranea had no better word for this. The warlord left two footprints in the stone, propelling herself forward with such speed that Aranea herself had trouble seeing her. Bel could, but this did little to help her.

A crushing chop came against her collarbone, shattering the left side of it. Another hit had entered Bel's stomach, forcing her to squeeze for air. And the last one had hit Bel from behind, breaking her right shoulder and leaving the right arm hanging loosely.

"I can… I can…" Bel collapsed on her knees, attempting in vain to stand. She shuddered, feeling a paw on her back.

"You are not unneeded, Bel," Annie had circled around Bel, standing on her knees before the woman. Two paws grabbed the wolf hag’s snout, forcing her to look into Annie’s eyes, "You think Virginia is going to be happy if you drop dead on her behalf? Or me? We are all on the same side, Bel. Live on, don't throw your life away. I am sure we can figure something out about your eyes. And if not, let’s just claw them out and replace them with optics?"

"Sounds… Metal, actually… I… I bought enough time," Bel breathed heavily, grabbing Annie’s wrist, "Wildling… Virginia is going to win. Go on, maul me, it won’t change a thing."

"If she is, you are going to watch it," Annie carefully took Bel into her arms, carrying the wolf hag to the arena’s edge and giving her to Estefania. "But, if I were you, I would have bet on a proper horse."

The warlord turned around, walking toward the two remaining contestants.

"Me."

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