Chapter 41: 42. The Leper And the Duchess I

Upon hearing Geneo's voice Zeff had initially thought he was a middle aged man. There was a raspy and gruff quality to his tone, not to mention a depth, that made him sound older. But at seeing him, he appeared to be only as old as Zeff, if not a bit older. He had thin sideburns that ran to the bottom of his earlobes and a perfect head 'surfer boy' hair, thin lips, intense eyes, and a jaw line that would make a model jealous. But he wasn't particularly attractive by Zeff's estimation. There was a quality to his demeanor and his mannerisms that wreaked of snobbery and entitlement.

He looked like someone who would laugh at a homeless person sooner than he would help one.

"What's the problem, Zeff-boy? You scared of a friendly little competition?" Geneo asked his hands slightly outstretched as if beckoning Zeff into an embrace.

"*Yeah* I'm scared!" Zeff admitted, causing Geneo to raise his eyebrows in surprise, his arms still outstretched. "Why would I want to fight for no reason surrounded by a bunch of strangers?! No, thanks. I'll pass."

An uncomfortable hush fell on everyone present, and Geneo dropped his jaw and slumped his shoulders in disbelief.

"Lord Hhhhreed." Zeff said, struggling to properly pronounce the name. "I would rather not—"

"My, oh my." Geneo suddenly sighed, composing himself and turning to the group of students with a sad head wag. "Many say that letting the returnees back into our society is a mistake. That they're too weak and their presence only breeds more weakness… Not me, of course." A few of the men in the crowd snickered at that. "If C.A.R.A.'s opponents could only see poor Zeff-boy now… No doubt their concerns would only be strengthened. By the four, a returnee has never even joined a squad! Not even once! I guess—"

"Blah-blah-blah. Say whatever you want Genie-o, Gunio, whatever your name is…" Geneo clenched his jaw for anger as a few giggles could be heard from some of the other students. "I am only here to start a new life. To lay low and learn about the land my ancestors used to call home."

That was complete nonsense, of course. But he had heard enough to make it sound believable and causing Lord Hreed to nod approvingly. "Zeff, there is no need that you fight, son. You'll have to forgive me. Due to historical reasons, we underworlders have always had to be a competitive bunch who love a good battle as much as your people love the moving show Gilligan's Island."

'Moving show…? Gilligan's Island…?' thought Zeff, genuinely perplexed.

"Yes… forgive me, too." Geneo interjected with a pained smirk (which Zeff had not known was even possible until that exact moment). "I had wondered why you would be here with your uncle instead of your father… But now I see why…" He flashed Zeff a conniving smile. "I'm sure your Father was not as brave as you… Zeff-boy." He said, his voice falling an octave.

Zeff could literally feel his blood boiling. To his left Rillian flared his nostrils but held his tongue. It seemed Geneo had even gotten to him with his taunting for some reason. But there was certainly no way Rillian would intervene on Zeff's behalf. And Zeff was okay with that.

However, he was not okay with having his father passive-aggressively mocked by this jerk wad.

He looked to Sylvan for support, but Sylvan only stood stark still, his arms crossed, with his visible hand holding up four fingers. It was obviously a sign, but Zeff had no idea what he was trying to say… But that's when he suddenly got an idea. A wonderful, wonderful idea. "You know what, Lord Hreed…? I think I will fight."

"What?! R-really?!" Rillian balked.

Lord Hreed simply said, "Oh, that's wonderful!" And clasped his hands together excitedly. Zeff couldn't help but marvel at the Aurator. He was a gentle and very intelligent man, much like Sylvan. That much was evident. But, unlike Sylvan, social intelligence was not among his strong suits.

"Could I pick who I fight, then?" Zeff made sure to say to Hreed rather than Geneo who would likely demand the two fight each other.

"W-well—" Geneo began.

"Why, of course, son!" Hreed exclaimed while Geneo pursed his lips in irritation. "Simply take your pick. I only need to see how your body utilizes aura and assess whether your given class is fitting to your gift. Everyone here will give you a fair fight, so don't worry about that."

Looking out across the serious faces of the men and women present, Zeff couldn't help but think, 'I seriously doubt that…'

Hreed scratched his chin. "By the way, son, what is your gift? Does it have a name?"

Zeff was taken aback. "Ah—er—naw. But I could show you my gift easier than I could explain it to you."

"That's the spirit, Zeff!" cheered Hreed with an awkwardly cute fist pump. "Well, let's get this going, what do you say?"

Presently, collective muttering shot through the crowd as everyone began to talk amongst themselves, wondering who Zeff might pick.

"Let's see… My last name is Corad. Begins with a C, ends with a D… So are there any people here with the last name that begins with C?" But before anyone could raise their hand, Zeff added, "Or someone who's first name begins with D. That should be more common, I think." From the edge of his vision he could see Sylvan raise a skeptical eyebrow. No doubt, he knew Zeff was up to something.

At once several people raised their hands, 4 in total from the roughly 30 or 40 people. And there, just in the front, standing confidently behind Geneo, was an extremely attractive girl with blonde hair, gray eyes and very large breasts. The only girl with her hand up. 'Found you, you horn-dog…'

"You seem nice enough." He said pointing at the woman. "What's your name?"

"Demra." Said the woman with a condescending smirk. "Demra Olenek, House of Reimus."

*****

Zeff was standing in the middle of the field alone. Across from him was Demra, her arms crossed. Her face the picture of confidence. Everyone else had retreated to the observation deck, a space above the entrance to the training field where they could watch the action without fear of getting 'caught in the crossfire' (as Hreed had said).

'What the h*ll, man…'

Zeff was about to vomit, of that he was more than certain.

He wasn't nervous, per se, or at least he hadn't been. That was until Rillian had to put a giant monkey wrench in his plans!

After he had challenged Demra and just before the fight was about to begin, Rillian had seized the opportunity to approach Zeff. 'No matter what—' he had whispered urgently, '—you have to lose. They can't know how strong you are. Not under any circumstances. Just dodge a few punches and take one to the face and go down… Nothing more.' And with that he strolled away.

So what was Zeff even fighting for now?! His master plan to kill two birds with one stone had promptly gone up in smoke before he could even set it into motion.

His plan had been to use his Dawn Treader ability along with Phobia to scare the crap out of Demra like he had done with Yessica without ever having to throw a punch, simultaneously getting his revenge for her lecherous behavior a few hours ago and embarrassing Geneo, her boyfriend. But now he couldn't use that tactic.

"Are you two ready?!" Lord Hreed called. He was barely visible beneath the shadow of the observation decks ceiling and could only be seen because of Zeff's shining nexus projection, which he had pulled upstairs somehow, floating next to him. The projection, just like Zeff, was in a comfortable stance, mirroring his every motion.

Zeff gave a thumbs up (his nexus next to Hreed doing the same) and Demra flipped her hair and called back, "I think so!" in mock nervousness that was so convincing that it almost made Zeff fill sorry for her.

"Good! Start at your leisure!" called Hreed loudly.

Zeff took in a deep breath. 'Okay. Let's get this over—'

"You know, your just my type, Zeff." Said Demra suddenly, causing Zeff to flinch. "I'll try not to ruin that cute face of yours. But in exchange, you have to do something for me…"

"And w-what would that be…?" Zeff asked, doing his best to hide the fact that he was already flustered.

"Geneo, is a sweetheart, but I need someone who can… please me. Someone who can—" She licked her lips sensually, and moaned softly. "I could show you better than I could tell you. I'm sure you'd make a great boy toy, don't you think? And you've probably never been with a girl that looks half as good as I do." She gave a seductive laugh. "Tell me I'm lying."

She certainly wasn't. Zeff had only seen girls that looked like Demra on TV. She was practically flawless. She was tall, maybe even taller than Zeff, and wore skin tight leggings that hugged every curve. Her blouse was revealing, showing off her deep cleavage, and her face, elvish and symmetrical, was lined by her long, blonde hair that she hadn't bothered to tie back.

But, despite all that, Zeff wasn't at all attracted to her in the least. On the contrary, she disgusted him. Zeff could vividly remember his high school and university days. How desperately he had tried to make himself appealing to women… And how brutally he had been rejected. It never bothered him, but he couldn't help but have an opinion on people who thought that because they were desirable, they could treat the 'undesirables' any way they wanted.

"Even the reddest apple can have worms inside." Zeff recited. "My father used to say that…"

Demra was taken aback by the adage and at once furrowed her eyebrows. "And what is that supposed to mean, you filthy leper."

"I coined my own version. Maybe a—" He searched for the best insult he could find, but ended up saying the first that came to mind. "—scrum-muncher like you will understand this better: 'No matter how beautiful the person, they ain't worth sh*t, if they're full of sh*t…"

Demra looked as if she didn't know how she wanted to react at first. But then she said with a patronizing smile, "Oh, you poor thing. I'm about to make you regret ever setting foot in the underworld."

"Oh, yeah. And—"

*Bowm!* In a moment Demra had closed the distance between Zeff and herself, and struck him cleanly in the chin. She was ridiculously fast, but after fighting with Sylvan she was practically moving in slow motion.

"OOOH!" An excited holler rose up from the observation deck as people cheered Demra on.

But that didn't matter. None of it did. He was determined not to fight back… 'But I'll be d*mned if I lose, either.' he thought.

"Is that all." Zeff scoffed, skipping backwards and using the same 'intimidating voice' he had used on Yessica in his apartment. "Surely, that was a joke." Despite his confident show, he was acutely aware that with that single punch, Demra had drawn blood, making his mouth bleed despite the fact that his Armored Hide skill was maxed out at level IV.

Demra seemed shocked at his nonchalance, but no one was more shocked than Zeff as a Phobia reading *Boop!*ed over her head making his jaw nearly hit the floor.

'(18/259)!!' He screamed to himself. 'Sardines and Sassafras! 259!?' It was the highest read out Zeff had ever seen. Even higher than Petticoat's had been.

Before he could process any further *Bam-Bam-BOOM!* Demra hit him with a flurry of strikes. A spinning round house to the temple, followed by a back elbow, and topped off with a high kick to his midsection as he fell that lifted him completely off of the ground.

Before he could touch the ground again, she stepped forward and caught him cleanly in the stomach with a devastating palm strike sending him flying backwards, hitting the ground in the horizontal and sliding across the grass until stopping just meter's away from the far wall.

Meanwhile up in the Observation deck, the group of students were going crazy, enjoying the show. Geneo especially.

There were two people who seemed completely uninterested in the fight. And that was Sylvan and Hreed, who both stood around Zeff's projection with wide eyed wonder.

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"What was that?!" asked Sylvan perplexed. "Those flashes of light just now?"

"Oh, that's nothing. She just struck him and the aura in his body reacted. It's to be expected."

"I thought he didn't have any aura." said Sylvan curiously.

"Oh, most certainly, he does." stated Hreed not taking his eyes off of the projection. "Everyone 'has' aura. But not everyone *has* aura, understand?"

"Uh—yeah. Certainly…" Sylvan said with a sigh, realizing that Hreed was too focused to give any more commentary than that.

Or so Sylvan thought before Hreed suddenly chimed, "But there are a few interesting things going on with his aura nexus."

Syvlan drew nearer, excited to hear more.

"Most returnees have dark gray or gray aura channels, what I referred to as 'synapses' earlier. But Zeff's are nearly white."

"What's so strange about that?" Sylvan inquired as the students suddenly roared with delight and the projection shimmered brightly for a second, its head snapping back as though slapped.

"Well, white is a color only some royals have. And royals with more than one color of aura at their disposal, at that. One's nexus may change colors over the course of their life, becoming lighter and lighter as they gain new aura affinities. This is not, at all, uncommon. But, generally as a rule of thumb, the closer to white one's nexus, the higher the mastery of aura or the older they are. Light blue is typically where most stop."

Sylvan had no idea what a royal was and Rillian had warned him not to let on how ignorant he was. So he simply said, "I see… So what else is strange."

"Well— and this is really quite fascinating— Zeff doesn't have a shard. But look at this." He pointed a finger at one of the little stars floating though his nexus, seemingly choosing a point at random.

Sylvan, unaware what he was supposed to be looking for, only watched intently. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then suddenly the little star, and many within his field of view suddenly blinked, quickly turning a yellow-orange and then shifting back to silver-white.

"Would you look at that! And that's the fifth or sixth time it's happened." Hreed marveled. "It's almost as if each node is it's own, separate shard. I would bet that his gift just activated." He shook his head with awe. "This has never been seen before… It's as though he's not even human but something else…. something more."

Sylvan remained silent. What could he say… 'Oh, yeah. He's actually a were-dragon.' No. It would be better for everyone if he changed the subject. "But what has his aura nexus to do with his gift?" he inquired.

"Of, my dear friend, everything!" chortled Hreed, his eyes still focused intently on the projection. "One's aura nexus is not merely the paths through which aura flows. All life, and I sincerely mean *all life*, needs and uses aura to function. Even you overworlders. Though your bodies utilize chemical energy in greater proportion to aura."

"Wait. Do you mean food?"

"Precisely."

"So, what? Underworlders don't eat?"

"We certainly—" He paused as Zeff's projection shimmered and doubled over as if struck in the stomach, followed by several violent strikes to the head in quick succession that sent it reeling (even as it floated there) as the crowd cheered. Then he went on, "Yes. We certainly do. But only once a day in most cases."

"Fascinating." Sylvan marveled. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't needed to eat much since he put on the ring. Nor had Zeff.  'Could the ring really be responsible?' he thought. But for some reason, the thought seemed to hard to pin down.

"But I digress. Much like one's heartbeat can give insight as to what's going on inside of the body, aura can give insights that we can use to draw conclusions as well. Zeff is not using aura to activate his gift but, because he is a creature which operates on aura, the two aren't entirely disconnected." Then he sighed and said, "I do so hope he let's me examine him later… Or I supposed I could examine you too, if you'd allow it."

"By the way—" Sylvan said in a sudden attempt to steer the conversation away from himself. "By how you're speaking, I would bet you're a man of the thinking arts. A doctor, undoubtedly." Sylvan deduced.

Lord Hreed instantly took the bait, at once forgetting his proposition from mere seconds before, "You would win that bet, friend! That's precisely what an Aurator is: an aura doctor and/or specialist."

"I see." He resisted the urge to reveal that he had been a professor of archaeology and such. He could already tell that he could potentially be rather fond of Hreed. But, without knowing if he could trust him, there was no need to let him closer than he had to be.

Sylvan, after the conversation had come to a stop, immediately withdrew, retreating to the far wall of the observation deck where Rillian was waiting, a nervous look on his face.

"H-hey aren't you scared for him." Rillian asked as soon as Sylvan was by his side, his voice low and his eyes trained on the field where Zeff was still engaged in battle.

"For who? Oh! No. Not at all, Zeff'll be just fine." replied Sylvan.

"N-no. He has to lose."

"He will. Aren't you watching?"

"He has to lose badly." stressed Rillian, his voice little more than a whisper. "He absolutely cannot be 'just fine' after this fight."

"I don't see what the problem is. He—"

"I know you don't. You don't know the political situation here in Obsidia. Zeff is fighting a *noble*!" He took great lengths to emphasize the word, as though he was speaking to a child. "You have no idea what that means, I realize. But trust me. If Zeff is not in critical condition after this fight (or at least soundly beaten), I can promise you… there are people who will make you wish you had stayed in the Overworld. If you thought it was bad with The Rings…" He didn't bother finishing his sentence, but merely trailed off, letting the silence make his point for him.

"Oh, dear…"

*****

Zeff was starting to get bored now…

Yeah, Demra had struck him in the face several times.

Yeah, she was ridiculously skilled.

And yeah, even if he fought for real, he probably couldn't even lay a scratch on her without Phobia or Dawn Treader.

But the truth was painfully obvious. As she was now, with her current level of strength, she would never be able to do any serious damage to Zeff thanks to his Armored Hide skill.

However, due to her Phobia (which had decreased to '12/259'), he got the impression that she wasn't trying to do any serious damage at all despite her words from earlier. It seemed rather that she was trying to break his spirit and not really giving her all.

'Please.' Zeff thought to himself. 'I've been knocked out by being kicked in the *ss… you better bring your A game if you wanna break me.'

"Are we done here?" he asked nonchalantly, trying purposely to seem bored.

Demra was taken aback.

"How about you give me one more good punch to the face, and I'll go down and stay down. That way you can still look good to all your friends."

Demra scoffed, her disbelief at Zeff's brazen attitude showing clear on her face. "It appears you still don't see the great chasm between—"

"Twould appear that you still don't see the great chasm blah-blah-blah, Leper trash!!" Zeff repeated, mocking her accent as best he could.

Demra's eyes grew to twice their usual size. "How dare you mock me! You Leper Tra— Y-you filthy Cast-Away!" she blushed.

The air began to buzz with energy as Demra's hair and blouse began to sway, practically floating on the wind. The problem was there was no wind blowing.

"I was going to simply knock you around for a few minutes and then leave. But now?—" Suddenly red light exploded from Demra's body, illuminating the whole field and making Zeff's head swim. "—I'm going to stomp you into dust."

Zeff caught his breath. It almost looked like, "Dragon's Rage?" he said to himself. But after a moment he realized it only looked similar. When Zeff entered Dragon's Rage, he produced mist, not light.

"No! No using aura, Mistress Demra! That's too dangerous!" yelled Hreed from the observation deck, his voice followed by the excited cheers and jeers of the students present.

However, Demra, overcome with rage and pride, ignored the man.

She extended her left hand toward Zeff and lifted her right so that it was behind her head and in line with her right ear. Then, lowering herself into a semi-crouching position with her left foot forward, she rotated her body so that it looked like she was about to throw a javelin or spear.

"Prepare yourself for the full might of Demra Olenek, heiress and daughter of Noble Djorlen Olenek, and the right hand to the crown princess of the House of Reimus!"

==========

+8 SP

Tree Skills: Armored Hide IV (Max), Physical Enhancement II, Sea Eater I, Phobia I, Fire Breath I

Store Skills: Roar I, Dragon's Rage, Dragon's Healing Sigh, Dawn Treader I

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