I could just hit him with Thorn’s Respite and end the fight now… but I needed him to be alive for this duel to be considered a win. Then… brutalize him? That’d be a big enough deterrent, yep? No one would be brave enough to try something if the last guy ended up as a mess of barely breathing gore. I, admittedly, might be overreacting just a bit… but once I brutalize the first one, a precedent would be set.
White Ebonshroud flowed from my foot, creating a spear just below the man still suspended in the air thanks to my scythe. I strengthened it with Etheric Reinforcement and Flame Spear, making it far more deadly then it first appeared. If he hit that, it’d piece right through him and cook his organs.
I ripped my scythe out of his subdermal armor and flipped it around. Just as the spear fully formed, I sunk the scythe blade into his back and forced him back down to the arena’s ground. Blood splattered out past the white scythe, creating a splendid arc in the air.
”T-Turtle!” The Warden desperately shouted. Just before the spear could skewer him through, a hexagonal shell enveloped his body. The defensive shell of ether trembled fiercely when he slammed down into the spear and then shattered entirely. Unfortunately, the spear shattered into ivory shards as well.
Temoc dropped to the ground and immediately rolled to the side. My scythe transformed mid strike into a heavy two handed warhammer. I brought it down on his arm, dual enhanced, and completely mangled the chrome. It crumpled under my strike like paper and jerked him out of his tight roll.
“Argh!” He screamed and desperately tried to back up. Ether pulsed under me, and bone shards pooled around him.
I ducked back and enhanced the defensive properties of my jacket with Ether Reinforcement. The bone shards uselessly shattered against my jacket and clattered to the ground. The follow up Bone Burrow underneath missed entirely, though did buy him a moment of space.
Jets of flame spewed from Temoc’s legs and launched him toward the scattered bones. He pulled himself into a tight roll, using the fire jets once more to dodge another heavy hammer blow. By the time he stood up, his frame had filled out even more, though at the sacrifice of one on his axes and arms. “You bitch! When I-“
A Will Wire wrapped javelin shut him up. It slammed into his chest, barely blocked in time by his turtle shell skill. The skill blinked faintly and then went out. That wasn’t my goal though. The javelin carried the Will Wire right to his feet.
It shot out, Ivorshroud wrapping it to enhance the wire even further. It coiled around his legs. I yanked harshly on the Will Wire still attached to my hand, pulling him off his feet like it was a lasso. At the same time, I shrunk the Will Wire to pull him toward me.
He showed relatively quick reactions and cut the wire with an axe. It took several hacks, and by the time he was through, the Warden was back below me. He tossed out an another barrage of useless bones and tried to slam his axe into my leg.
”Argh!” I stepped on his good wrist and crushed it below my weight. At the same time, a white spike sprung from my boot and pierced through his hand into the arena floor. He tried to pull away, but he was well and truly stuck. “I su—“
“…!” I kicked him in the jaw with the full might of Ether Physique and Ether Reinforcement. The weak bone stood no chance against the force of my blow. It cracked out of socket with a wet crunch and dangled uselessly.
”Ughh—Ughh huhhhh.” He desperately tried to get out more words, but I just—I couldn’t quite understand him. It was a shame, it really was.
[Nighteye cheerfully munches on her popcorn. Too bad he was incapable of speaking. Nothing more than a beast, really.]
Impartial Prejudice moved over in his ethereal state and inspected the fight. Temoc tried to slap his hands against the ground and tap out, but one was nailed to the floor and the other flopped around as a mangled peice of metal. Just to be safe, I slammed a javelin down into his mangled arm to prevent it from moving. “Hmm… still looks conscious to me.”
Temoc’s face went white like he’d just seen a ghost. Well, since he wasn’t surrendering, then there was no reason to hold back, yep? Just beat him till he’s unconscious. I hefted my hammer. Look! He still had two working limbs… I could fix that.
He held on much longer than I thought. Really, the man was quite sturdy. He tried to use Skills to get me off of him every once in a while, but eventually he gave up when he saw just how ineffective they were. Every one was either dodged well in advance or blocked by my reinforced jacket.
Temoc slowly but steadily accumulated broken bones and bruises. I didn’t spare any part of him. Anything that so much as twitched met the full force of my hammer. Humans had two hundred something bones. I broke at least half of that.
I still went a bit easy on him, of course. Couldn’t have him falling unconscious before I had my several pounds of flesh and blood. That and I didn’t want the man to die. He insulted my liege, so he more than deserved it. I was warned against killing the other Warden several times though, and the repercussions would be annoying.
Eventually, when he looked like he couldn’t hold on any longer, I crouched next to the side of his head. His entire body trembled like a worm trying to crawl away… more beatings would fix that, but I was growing bored of hitting him. He stopped reacting, and instead just kept trying to curl up to protect his already pulverized organs. ‘Sides, I could only do so much damage to the man. Not like I could cut him open without violating a few rules.
His eyes looked up at me in pure terror like I was some kind of monster. “U-ughh-hhh.”
“You ever. Talk about. Lucia again?” I slapped his broken cheekbones several times hard enough to bruise. It was just to make sure his attention was fully on me. I had no other motives, yep. “Won’t stop. Here.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
He tried to nod his head, but his neck wasn’t quite in a state to do such a thing. “Ughhh—“
I backed away and pulled out the javelins speared into his pulverized chrome. The tendrils of Ebonshroud that sprouted off of the spears inside his limbs pulled away from the nerves they’d been shredding like nothing happened. They were just normal javelins, yep.
I kicked him one last time, graciously allowing the man to go unconscious. My Ebonshroud weapons flowed back and underneath my skin. I flicked out my blood soaked jacket and pants, easily cleaning them off. Last but not least, I formed a pair of sunglasses and put them on. My original set had fallen off at some point.
“Uh—Cernobog Industries victory!” Impartial Prejudice called out. “Temoc unconscious.”
I nodded my head and went back the way I came in. She wanted me to embarrass him, yep? Surely this counted?
— — —
Lucia watched the play back of the fight. If it could even be called that in the first place. It was more like an adult toying with a kid, and then completely annihilating the kid once the adult got bored. Temoc stood no chance, and Impartial Prejudice didn’t call the fight for way too long.
She watched it one more time, freezing the frame when the white weapon swapped into a scythe. Aylin… the quiet woman had quite a bit of a wild streak to her, huh? She wasn’t sure what to expect in the fight, but it wasn’t this. Even calling it a fight was a bit…
Her mind drifted to the taciturn Warden. She was out now, getting a coffee or something like that. Aylin had done her part in winning the fight, though. Not only did it raise corporate morale, but it also gave Cernobog an important contract with Throne. It was Lucia’s turn to do her part and ensure everything outside of fighting flowed smoothly.
She hit play and watched it again, idly moving over to the next page on her terminal. It was full of several news articles written just after the duel. The media invited by Tzon Enterprises had been busy.
[New Warden Too Brutal? Sanctions From Throne.]
[Moon—Too Brutal To Stay Free?]
[Warden Brutality And You.]
[Mental Health Of Wardens And Why It Matters.]
[Why Hasn’t Throne Done Something About This?]
[Rise of the Blood Moon!]
Most of them were slander articles. They picked and showed only the worst moments, which was admittedly the entire back half of the fight. Aylin didn’t hold back, that was for sure. And yet these—these people acted like she was nothing more than a monster that should be taken care of before she could injure someone else.
Of course, it was all one-sided. They were paid by Tzon, and they more than earned the pay with their articles. Even now, more articles were pushed out by the minute. If it kept up like this, Aylin’s name would be tossed in the mud, and Cernobog wouldn’t be much behind. If that happened, politics and bureaucracy would become a pain to wade through. Public opinion was always solid leverage. Even the largest corporations needed customers.
That wasn’t counting the public reception to the leaked fight. For the most part, people loved Wardens. There was still fear in people’s heart of hearts though. Although they were portrayed as heroes, there was no denying even just an F-rank’s strength. If that fear was turned into a weapon against Moon?
That—that couldn’t happen. Not over something like this. Lucia tapped her chin, watching the video play back again and again. Most of the clips were out of context, and missing the audio parts beforehand. She could use that. She set aside her other duties as CEO and drafted up a plan.
The world turned drab and grey as her Innate Trait, Eyes of Providence, took hold. She carefully reviewed the strands, lightly shifting her mind around with each strand she inspected. Eventually, a radiant one caught her eye. She carefully watched the strand lead far into the distance.
Radiant strands were good. Better than good, even. They were the calls of opportunity, far better than the silver and gold ones she normally dealt with. Kali had been radiant, and Aylin likely would’ve been too if Lucia’s Trait worked on her. Definitely better than the red and horrific black ones.
After a moment’s hesitation, she leaned forward and made a call for Torvald, the temporary Marketing Head. While she waited for him, she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. Her mind drifted back over the whole thing.
Aylin was so cool. There was no denying that. Watching her attack with one weapon and then a completely different one like that? A small grin raised her lips. Even just being around her brought some level of comfort and joy. There wasn’t anyone else she felt safe around like the quiet woman since her dad died.
She lightly shook her head. On the more CEO side of things watching her smoothly flow from weapon to weapon made for wicked fights. If they could use that, emphasize some of her other strengths, and push it out? The public would eat it up. Especially since she most definitely wasn’t staying as just an F-rank Warden.
Speaking of, after this was taken care of, she needed to see about getting the Warden a manager. Someone to help with PR, building a rep, and keeping schedules. Aylin had fighting down to an exact science, but the rest of the stuff being a Warden entailed? She needed help. Hell, the woman could barely operate a coffee pot.
A manager though… it’d have to be someone good. Lucia wrote down a note on her terminal to have Kruber and Hawthorne look for a quality manager. As if they didn’t have enough on their plates… No matter. As Moon’s image grew, so too would Cernobog’s reach. It was the win-win nature of Corporate Wardens.
A knock came at the door. “Come in!”
The old dwarf walked into her office and took a seat across from her. His head barely reached up over the top of the desk. He frowned, but the slight curl of his eyes revealed the man’s true emotions. “Lucia… you look better.”
“Thanks, Torvald.” A small smile played across her lips. It faded and she turned significantly more serious. “What’d you think?”
Torvald rubbed at his beard and leaned back in his seat. “Where’d you find that one? More like a wild cat than anything.”
“She found me. Ashlands.” Lucia sighed and flipped the terminal around to the old dwarf. “You see this yet?”
”Of course I have.” The frown on his face deepened. “Tzon’s hoping to get something out of this crushing defeat of theirs, at least. What do you want to do?”
Lucia played the video back, emphasizing certain clips of audio. “Send it unedited to every reporter in the city. The whole thing, from several angles.”
”We paying them off?” The dwarf raised a bushy brow. “That much… it’ll put a heavy dent in our finances. We’re barely keeping neutral with productivity drops after your takeover. Not to mention hiring more execs.”
“No. Make it as unbiased as possible too. Give it to them raw.” Lucia pulled a shard out of her terminal with a copy of all of the footage. “Let them make up their own minds on it.”
Torvald took the offered chip, though didn’t move to get out of the chair. “Are you sure? That could blow up in our faces.”
”I’m sure… send them the links to Tzon’s reports too. The media has a nose for controversy. It’ll play in our favor. ‘Sides, we have some media connections still, right? Lean on them.” Lucia paused to look at the strands of her Trait one more time. “Trust me.”
”Aye… you always did have an eye for this kind of thing.” The dwarf slowly nodded his head and hopped out of the chair. “I’ll let you know how it goes.”
She went back to work scribbling on a piece of paper—”Oh! Call Kruber and Hawthorne in for me, will you?”
Torvald waved a hand over his shoulder and reached up for the doorknob. “Yeah yeah. Don’t work yourself too hard, boss.”
Lucia watched him go and sat back in her chair. As if the first two times weren’t enough, she flicked on Eyes of Providence one last time to check. She ended up staying awake late into the night, ensuring everything would go smoothly.
