Chapter 43: Book 2 Chapter 5 – Small Steps and Challenges (Part 4)

I left the classroom together with Voxxy. “Where are you from anyway?” she asked me.

“Oh, you know, here and there… and there…” I joked. “I sort of come from all over the place. I spent my formative years in Hell though.”

“…You know, every time I think you’re fucking with me, you’re telling the truth… are you telling the truth again?”

“Yes.”

“Which Hell anyway?”

“Earth Hell.”

“Ah, so THE Hell. What the hell? Why did you live there?”

“I had a deal with Beelzebub.”

“Isn’t that the head honcho?”

“No, although that’s a typical mistake to make. Hell is led by archdevils and overlords, and Beelzebub is a prominent member of the former, the Lord of Flies. However, despite being often linked, he and Satan are not the same entity. Neither is Lucifer, for what that is worth.”

“I have no idea who Lucifer is,” Voxxy told me.

“…Man, it’s really weird to hear which parts of Earth mythology made it to other corners of the cosmos and which didn’t.” Parallel to us talking, I was writing Esther a message. I would see her when she came over to eat whatever I put together during Cooking Class today. Regardless, I felt it right to inform her I had found another woman I was interested in.

Esther: Understood.

I chuckled. “What’s so funny?” the shortstack asked and I showed her the message. She raised an eyebrow, properly reading the part about herself where I described her as a ‘sexy, foxy little thing of great talent and a refreshingly open, erotic attitude’. She did not comment on any of it. What I was after and why I had asked all these questions earlier was just as blatantly obvious as the reason she had answered all of them. We were exploring our options. “Are you in trouble?”

“No, she just writes that way,” I responded. My Ashod vibrated in my hand, while I pulled it back. A new message had just appeared. I stopped in the middle of my step. “Although someone might be in trouble,” I added, my voice strained with annoyance.

On my screen was a message by one ‘Lemair’, demanding that I come see them by one of the nearby green areas. Because this was part of AppDark’s communication system, there was a photo attached. While the name was unfamiliar, I did recognize the man depicted. He was one of the three who had glared daggers at me earlier. That he took action was unsurprising, that he had my contact info, that was the annoying bit.

“I was just summoned by someone quite annoyed that I got my foot in the door first,” I told Voxxy. “I’ll have to take this. Could get ugly, so if you want to go, that’d be-”

“I’m tagging along,” the shortstack interrupted me.

Nothing about that idea bothered me. I did try to decipher the reason why she came along though. She was grinning, removing guilt from the possibilities. Eager, was how I would have described her looks. Maybe she liked watching violence or maybe she wanted to confirm specifically how capable I was. Maybe she just wanted to see magic in action.

“Alright, let’s go then.” I shrugged and led the way.

Even though this was not how I preferred to spend my break, I had little choice in the matter. For one, I would not have anyone mouth off that I was a coward. Many a title could be used to describe me, that one I rejected. Secondly, I seriously did not like that some random student got my number.

After two minutes of walking, we arrived at the green area. Students who were, just like us, on break, were scattered loosely around the place, chatting and sunbathing. Lemair stood, eagerly waiting, towards the back of the field.

He was similar to myself in build. Slightly above average size, fit, and attractive. He wore his dark hair around the same length I wore my white mane. In these broad strokes, we looked similar. The shapes of our noses, ears, and such finer details differed more than enough to make it impossible to mistake him as my evil twin.

Which meant the ‘fated rival’ way of him getting my number was out, leaving the mundane and more upsetting explanation. “Did you rummage through her desk while we presented our machine?”

Lemair had opened his mouth to say something else. My sudden question put him on the backfoot. He glanced at Voxxy. If he had done that, he wouldn’t have wanted to confess it in front of her. Predictably, he dodged the question. “Fuck off, I called you to give you a lesson.”

“A lesson on what, if you are capable of putting together the necessary intellectual capacity to muster a precise answer?” I asked, arms crossed.

“You can’t just slander everyone else in the room!”

Slowly, I tapped my foot, carefully weighing what my response to that should be. Then I sighed. “This is stupid. Apologize, delete my number, and I’ll be on my way.”

“No, it’s time someone showed you that you can’t just throw your weight around,” Lemair growled and pulled out his Ashod. “By the Welldark rules, I’m challenging you to a duel.”

I wrinkled my forehead. For a moment, I thought, then I shook my head and sighed again. “Last chance, just do as I asked. You don’t want this.”

“Take the duel, coward,” Lemair growled.

“…If that’s what has to happen,” I finally gave in. I wasn’t one for unnecessary violence. After having asked twice, I had fulfilled my moral obligation to make sure it was, indeed, necessary violence. My only options now were to oblige or to be slandered.

I opened my Ashod and maneuvered to the duels page. Several options were available, one versus one and Anomalia versus Anomalia being the most prominent. I went with the former and was then presented with the various things the system knew I could wager. Money, my phone number, the entrance code for my mansion, a spare school uniform. At the bottom was a write-in field, currently being occupied by the placeholder sentence ‘You are not authorized to wager anything that is not in your direct possession, such as other people’s phone numbers.’

Welldark’s duel system existed, fundamentally, as a correction mechanism outside of the tournament season. Should someone hit a growth spurt between two tournaments, it was this that let them potentially rise up the ranks. If someone in the Wood Division managed to score ten victories in duels against people in the Bronze Area, they would be assigned a new home in that higher rank.

There was also the option for anyone to directly wager their current lodging, switching it with that of their opponent upon a loss. This was, like all substantial losses, dependent on the agreement from both sides. The administration knew that no one would accept any correction duels if they could actually lose something for accepting them. Hence why, in regular cases, it was about a showcase of skill, not a chase for someone stupid enough to bet their cushy, high-class suite.

That was what the system had been conceived for: correction. Whether it had launched with the capacity for duels in the interest of private matters or if that had been a reaction to student behaviour, I had no idea. Fact was that the version I had access to could be used for practically any purpose.

Reasons to use the AppDark duel registration were twofold. For one, it meant that the university had a backup of the wagers made. That was required for tracking. In private duels, it also meant that the administration could operate as enforcers for whatever had been agreed on. The second benefit was that Welldark had a number of battlegrounds all over the campus and the rest of the pocket dimension.

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I typed ‘will delete my Ashod number’ into the write-in field and pressed a button to confirm. Lemair stepped up to me and presented the bottom half of the metal-framed stones that made up the physical bits of the device. Contact with my Ashod allowed a swift data transfer. Presented to me were the terms of his victory. I was to stay away from Voxxy for a month and to apologize for my behaviour. Both were ridiculous. I accepted anyway.

The Ashod switched to a loading screen, as it scanned for the closest arena acceptable for people of our power level. Obviously, two freshmen fighting was not as worrisome as people, particularly the most talented ones, in their last year on Welldark throwing around the full might of their spells and Artefacts.

An arena was found right in our current courtyard. Speakers hidden underground blared out warning sounds, as a square of pavement between walkway and green area was lowered half a metre down. Students looked around in interest, soon spotting us heading towards it. For many freshmen, this was the first duel they witnessed. I imagined that most of them happened around the dormitories. Had it not been for Willt, I would have barely known anything about this possibility in the first place.

“How about we wager something too?” I asked Voxxy, who followed me closely. “If I win, I get your number.”

“You’d get to see it when I make contact with you anyway, stud,” the shortstack said.

“Sure, but it’s more fun this way,” I told her. “Do we have a deal?”

“Hmm, sure, whatever,” Voxxy grinned and stopped at the edge of the arena.

I jumped in first, Lemair followed immediately. His anger seemed to have doubled, probably because I had continued flirting with the goblin of our desire right in front of him. It would have been unbecoming of me to change my behaviour because some intrusive element decided he had a stake in my relationships. I could understand many a rationale for becoming annoyed. This particular chain of events, particularly how it played out, struck me as entitled above anything else.

The walls of our arena were made out of smooth blocks. The ground primarily consisted of dark grey tiles, with two rows of dark red breaking up the monotony. “The fighters should position themselves on the red tiles, across from each other,” a mechanical, neutral voice commented from the hidden speakers.

‘Neat design,’ I thought and took my position. ‘How seriously do I take this…? Ah, obviously there’s a relationship on the line. I wouldn’t want to be bothered in the future either.’ I closed my eyes and manifested my gloves. Opening one eye, I checked if Lemair was manifesting his own Artefact. Surely, he wouldn’t have challenged me if he hadn’t managed to create his own, at least?

I saw nothing. That was no cause for relaxation. His Artefact could have been a small object, easily hidden, or had a passive state that was integrated in his clothing. I closed my eyes again and just waited for the duel to begin. The mechanical voice counted down from ten. I sensed the ground getting lowered further.

On zero, I teleported across the distance. I opened my eyes, looking at my unsurprised opponent’s face. To his credit, Lemair had obviously done his homework. One of the biggest drawbacks of being well-known was that everyone could research my Artefact. Immediately, he pulled his hand back to deliver a devastating punch.

I delivered a quick jab to the chest.

Lemair stumbled one step backwards involuntarily, then took a second step back to gain distance. The drawn back hand opened. Particles of dirt and rock flew towards him from the over two metre tall walls that made up the borders of our fighting pit. All of it consolidated in a fist-sized rock that he attempted to lunge at me.

I grabbed his wrist mid-motion.

Struggling, Lemair must have been confused when I let him go with barely any resistance. While he took another half step backwards, I crouched with my entire body. The motion was smooth, well-trained. Years of mixed martial arts unloaded swiftly. I aimed at his centre of mass. My fist, covered in an astral gauntlet hard as steel, slammed into his kidney.

I waited, as Lemair bent forwards and put a hand against my chest. Too late, I realized that was more than a reflexive gesture. Intense vertigo took hold of me, then my physical being followed and I was catapulted back in a straight line. I didn’t stop until my back hit the opposite wall. Dull pain spread up my spine and my shoulders. Bothersome, not truly distracting. I kept my eyes keenly focused on my opponent.

Who was wiping spit off his chin with the back of his hand. With a deep breath, he straightened up. The Astral Body eliminated the pain along with whatever injury I had caused. “Could you just surrender? I have a lady to cook for,” I pleaded.

“Fuck off, you hit me, I hit you back, we’re doing this.”

“With all sincerity, you do not have the combat experience to beat me,” I told him. “Next time I get a leg up on you, I’m not giving you any chances. If you were so inclined to spare yourself the pain and me the taint of inflicting such, I would be much obli-“

“Shut – up,” Lemair growled.

With a sigh, I granted him his wish. ‘Just violence then,’ I resolved and began to walk towards him. ‘His Artefact creates a push of kinetic force on contact. Does it work on recharge time, maybe?’ I looked him over, still unable to find where exactly he was wearing it on his body. ‘I don’t think I have to find out to win though…’ While I approached him, Lemair backed away and got closer to the corner.

He finally chucked the stone at me, but I just swatted it aside. It didn’t change our situation. I closed in on him. Then, when he was where I wanted him to be, I charged.

Raising his foot high, he stomped hard and sent intense vibrations through the floor. The first tremor had barely hit me, when I leapt. Committed to the stomp, he managed to dodge only by twisting his entire body to the side. My open hand drifted by his face and grabbed his shoulder.

I held him where he was and my flying knee slammed into his guts. This time, I did not give him a moment to gather himself. I immediately smacked him on the head with my right hand. Disoriented and his weight increased, he did not have the speed to prevent me from forcing him into the corner. I backed off slightly, let him try to hit me with his Artefact. I caught his wrist again. Then jabbed his ribcage. A clean, but not particularly impactful hit.

Lemair tried to hit me with his other hand. I pinned that one against the wall of the pit. With no hands left, I had few options remaining. He had none. “Give up,” I demanded and only got a spiteful growl back. The sound didn’t last long. A headbutt to the temple shut him up immediately. When one was reduced to swinging the skull as a weapon, the only part that mattered was that one’s own hardest parts slammed into the opponent’s softest.

He was visibly dazed, giving me the opportunity to wrestle him into an even worse position. It took thirty seconds of continuous struggle, then I had one arm of his pinned between the wall and my shoulder and the other in my grasp. That left one fist just manoeuvrable enough to repeatedly punch him in the gut.

Guided more by rage than reason, Lemair struggled and struggled. A normal man would have gone down a while ago. The Astral Body kept him standing. Eventually, he would manage to wiggle an arm free. I decided to get ahead of that and just backed off when I felt the pin of my shoulder weaken.

I backed off two steps, far enough to be out of reach and close enough to keep him from getting out of the corner. He had only two options: come straight at me or try to break out. Actually, he had a third option, which was to collapse to his knees due to the stacking effect of my gravity magic. That option took him out.

“F-fuck,” Lemair gasped, trying to stand up.

If I had wanted to, I could have kept applying the magic and just watch him tire himself out. “Look, I can either knock you out or you surrender here,” I offered again. He was about to growl something defiant again, it was self-evident in his body language. Raising his head in response, I kicked him across the face. Collapsed, he lay still on the floor.

I pulled out my Ashod and pressed a ‘Victory by Countdown’ button. The mechanical voice once more rang out. Lemair could have ended the countdown at any point, by just touching his own Ashod. Hand contact with the standby mode of the device would have been enough. That whole mechanic existed only if one participant was unconscious or immobile.

A referee would have been preferable, of course, but I doubted teachers would be big fans of a duel system that regularly interrupted their breaks. I would hate that. There were so many better things to do during the breaks, as Omnius had shown with his goblin haremette a few weeks ago.

My prospective goblin haremette was waiting for me at the edge of the fighting pit. The countdown had reached zero and Lemair was, albeit conscious, still not able to move. Slowly, the floor rose back up to regular levels. I absorbed my gauntlets back into my Astral Capacity and waited.

The brawl had attracted a small crowd, about twenty people. Considering this was an unannounced fight in the middle of one the more tucked away courtyards of the massive campus, that was pretty impressive. A few of my fellow students clapped for me, when I reached their height, celebrating a victory they had no stake in.

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