The servant held her hands out, an object lying across her palms. I stared at it in disbelief. THAT’S the king’s soul protecting artifact!? She has got to kidding me! The servant girl seemed to be able to tell what I was thinking. Her face flushed and she ducked her head quickly.

“I-I know it’s weird….but they really are the king’s soul protecting artifact….”

....It’s a pair of SOCKS! Made out of Chain Mail!! There is no way that the king walks around with that on all day, it has got to be seriously uncomfortable to wear! Who the heck would make two chain metal socks into a soul protection artifact!? And wouldn’t that mean he’s always worn the same pair of socks!? That’s seriously gross!!!!I took a small step back, it was amazing I couldn’t smell the socks from here, maybe chainmail doesn’t carry stinky feet smell very well….The girl shifted uncomfortably and endeavored to explain further.

“He’s only just started wearing them, a king only starts wearing a soul-protecting artifact when they inherit the throne. The previous king picks from the soul artifacts what his successor will be allowed to use, it’s the only time the vaults to the artifacts are allowed to be opened. It’s a strange tradition…..but anyways, the old king didn’t like His Highness Prince..er..King Edric, so he picked the weirdest artifact he could...they are cleaned every night...the king says they’re surprisingly comfortable as well…...”

…...Whatever, it wasn’t like I actually needed a soul protecting artifact, soul attacking artifacts only worked on the race of beings that were used to create the artifact with black magic, most of which were humans, since they breed easily, though there are the few mere dark artifacts that pop up once in awhile…...as a half-human mermaid, one of the perks is that my soul is unique, it’s not affected by either mere or human dark artifacts, and there were never enough half-human meres to kill in the past to ever craft a successful artifact…..but it would look strange if I refused…..My eyebrow began to twitch. The girl seemed to sense my moment of weakness, she thrust the pair of wierd socks forward.

“Please, just take them!”

A gust of air burst past my lips in a sigh, and I reluctantly picked up the socks, pinching them precariously between my thumb and forefinger. The chain metal actually felt a lot smoother than what I had first estimated, I could almost believe the servant girl’s claim that the King found them comfortable to wear…...Almost…..in any case, I wasn’t going to find out because there was no way I was going to put them on. I carefully slid the socks into my right boot, the thing about artifact was, as long as a soul artifact was touching the skin of the bearer, it would work, it didn’t actually need to be worn the way. Unfortunately, humans have lost that little bit of information...The servant girl didn’t seem to know what humans thought about soul artifact though, as she simply nodded contently and quickly walked off to get the man I would be fighting. She moved the door directly opposite mine and quickly knocked on it. The door opened moments later and I quickly examined the man I would be fighting.

From all appearances, he practically screamed weak. His body looked frail, as though a single puff of wind could knock him over, and the black clothes he wore only made the sickly tint of his skin. Using dark artifacts took a toll on the user, and from the looks of things, this guy had been using his artifact quite a bit...The man examined me in turn and his lip curled in a sneer of disdain, clearly he didn’t even view me as an opponent. Well, that would just mean he wouldn’t be prepared for me to kick his butt!

We walked out to the arena, once again the field had gone under a drastic transformation. The rope was gone and the bottom of the arena had sunk down even farther down. Suspended in the air were dozens of hovering platforms that hung motionless at all different angles and levels. I gave a soft sigh, this would make it easier for the weak guy to evade me, he may look frail, but those types were always excellent at fleeing…... Luckily I have always been good at chasing.

I lept easily onto the nearest platform and quickly maneuvered my way to the center of the hovering stone boards. I watched as the sickly man also made his way smoothly to the center of the arena. Hmmm, as I expected, this kind of environment is well suited for him…

“Ah, Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve reached the third round of the tournament! Our first two fighters are the Lovely Delta and the Mysterious Lonan! As you can see, the arena has once again made an amazing transformation, the contestants will have to battle each other while moving across these small platforms! If either of them hits the ground they will be disqualified. Other than that, the rules are the same, the winner must have their opponent surrender or incapacitate them, mind you, Without killing them~”

The speaker signalled for us to prepare to fight and I moved a few platforms away from Lonan, just being careful. As soon as the horn sounded, I felt something try to grasp at my soul, it felt dark, icky, and disgusting. I shuddered slightly at the sensation, but that was all the effect the dark magic had on me, moments later, the feeling slid away from my awareness and vanished. I looked to see surprise freezing Lonan’s face, I smirked at him and darted forward, pushing off several vertical boards to speed my travel through the air. Seeing me speed towards him, Lonan quickly slipped away from his platform and dropped to a lower level of boards and continued to dart away from me as quickly as possible.

I let myself drop down and followed him, my eyes narrowed. Running away wasn’t the only thing he was doing…..He had pulled something out from underneath his shirt as he moved, some kind of necklace, and clenched it tightly in his fist. I could feel the dark, sickly power begin to surge around him, he was doing something wierd with the dark artifact! I sped up, trying to close the distance between us, whatever he was planning, it most definitely wasn’t going to be good!

Just as I was only a few meters away from him, the dark power that Lonan had been gathering suddenly surged and he darted upwards at a speed that was three times as fast as his original pace. I followed him as quickly as I could, but by the time I reached the highest platform, Lonan was already sailing through the air, a black mist wrapped around his suddenly deformed body while terrible shrieks emanated from his lips. He was heading straight for the King! I cursed in my mind and without hesitation, threw my two twin blades with every single ounce of human magic that I had left. The King of Serac was the only bait I had to draw out Cedric and that stupid princess, I needed him alive!

I sank tiredly onto the platform as I watched my blades speed towards the creature that had once been Lonan, at the speed I had thrown them, they were only a blurry streak of silver and were quickly catching up to Lonan,  but still, I didn’t think they would make it in time. However, about thirteen meters away from the king, Lonan suddenly crashed into an invisible barrier, causing a golden ripple of energy the roll around the entire arena, revealing the protective barrier that had been installed to protect the audience.

Lonan shrieked angrily and began clawing furiously at the barrier, actually starting to tear a hole in the shield, but it didn’t matter, the barrier had stalled Lonan long enough for my two blades to reach him. One slammed into his back, right around where his heart would be, and the other pierced through Lonan’s neck, cleanly severing his spine. My heart leapt into my throat for a moment as the man’s body actually kept moving for a long moment, even as his head sagged, barely still attached to his body, but then he dropped limply to the arena floor, crashing through several platforms on his way down and shattering them. While it seemed to have taken forever in my mind, the whole spectacle had actually only taken a few seconds

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I gave a sigh of relief and let my body go limp, using that much mana at once took a pretty heavy toll. I hadn’t wanted to kill Lonan, but at that moment, it was the only option I could use to stop him, and I’m pretty sure at the end there it was obvious that he had been using a dark artifact, or at least attempting to assassinate the king, so I probably won’t get disqualified…..Well, even if I didn’t make it as a guard, I could always infiltrate the castle another way, even though I still despise the idea of being a maid, what mattered most was the fact the the King of Serac was still alive. The entire arena was silent, the audience in complete shock from what happened.

Still, someone’s brain was still working, because I felt my platform begin to drift down to the arena floor, it was clear I was unable to move at the moment, well, I could still actually move if I wanted, but not to the extent of being able to traverse my way down to the ground. The platform finally hovered to a stop, and with a groan, I slid off it and landed on the ground only a few feet away, the soft bed in my waiting room the sole focus of my mind. The arena was still deadly silent as I stumbled tiredly to the exit where the servant girl was waiting, but I could feel every pair of eyes in the audience focused on my back. As soon as the doors to the arena shut behind us, the servant girl slipped under my arm, giving me support. I nodded gratefully to her.

“Thank you for saving the king’s life, unfortunately, since you killed Lonan, I’m not sure if you’ll be disqualified or not, it should be obvious that you are not at fault in this situation and that Lonan was using a dark artifact so you shouldn’t be disqualified, but I have no doubt some of the nobles will still try to make the king disqualify you, they haven’t settled under his rule yet and I’m sure some are eyeing the throne, so someone as strong as you would be an impediment to their plans. I’m sure that the king will be able to suppress them in the end though…….”

I dipped my head slightly in understanding, I’ve had plenty of experience dealing with snotty, self-serving nobles. As the King of Serac was new to the throne, they’d likely be even more irritating and dangerous than usual...It seems I’ll have my work cut out for me keeping the king alive….

The servant girl helped me into my room and I sat happily on my cot. Reaching into my boot, I retrieved the pair of chainmail socks and tossed them to the girl. She caught them and gave me a grateful bow.

“Thank you, is there anything else I can do for you?”

I flopped back onto my bed and shook my head in a negative signal, after expending so much mana, all I wanted to do was sleep and regain my energy. As soon as the door shut I was drifting off into a blissfully undisturbed sleep.

The King of Serac’s Point of View:

I watched as the strange woman Delta moved wearily out of the arena, clearly tired. She had probably just saved my life, well, Theron probably could have killed Lonan, though not as quickly, but if that Lonan fellow had won, he would’ve gotten close enough to kill me without giving myself or my guards enough warning to try and protect me…..

I turned my attention to the distant and twisted form of Lonan on the arena floor. With a flick of my wrist, the area on which Lonan’s body was lying rose up into the air and moved towards me. Theron gave a disapproving grunt.

“That thing could still be dangerous, and you don’t have your soul protecting artifact right now...”

I held my hand up, causing the slab of earth to stop, and considered his words. He was right...but it would probably be fine, from what I could tell, Delta’s swords had and were still piercing Lonan’s heart and throat. Whatever she did at the end must have made her really tired, I had the feeling that Delta wasn’t the kind of woman that casually left her blades behind…

Just to be safe, I formed a protective barrier around the body, sealing any dangerous elements that might still be lingering away from the outside world. The slab of earth settled at my feet and I leaned forwards to examine the creature that had once been Lonan.

The man’s body was twisted, Seemingly random muscle bulging outwards in ridiculous proportions while other parts of his body looked like there was no muscle at all, just a thin layer of skin covering the bone. Lonan’s knees were also bent the wrong way, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t from his fall to the arena floor. The tips of the man’s fingers had morphed into deadly blackened spines and two incredibly long and sharp spines were curving up out of the dead man’s mouth, they looked like the tusks of a boar. Where Lonan’s eyes should have been, was only a pitch black hole. I couldn’t help but shudder slightly. Tearing my mind away from the horrific transformations the man had under gone, I focus on the clear crystal that was hanging around Lonan’s neck on a simple iron chain. The crystal was fractured and clearly broken beyond repair, Frowning leaned even closer to examine the crystal, the tip of Delta’s sword had actually passed through Lonan’s neck and pierced the crystal, which was undoubtedly the dark artifact, and had…..destroyed it!

“She……..actually…..destroyed a dark artifact in one blow! How much mana does that woman have!?”

It usually took several human mages’ combined efforts to destroy a dark artifact, yet Delta had done it in one blow all on her own. Theron crouched down to look at the crystal as well.

“It looks like the sword factored in as well, it’s a top quality item and had been designed specifically the channel mana with the highest level of efficiency I’ve ever seen…….. I suppose a massive concentrated mana impacting at a single point would be quite effective to destroy a simple crystal dark artifact like this, but even then, the cost is that the tip of the blade has cracked from the force of impact…...I have a feeling that Delta didn’t plan that bit…….”

I felt my blood chill slightly, a sword was a warrior life, Delta was not going to be happy when she found out that her sword was broken…..

“Aha, p-putting that matter aside, why do you think this guy was trying to kill me? Personally, I’m betting he was a hired assassin by one of the nobles...”

Theron nodded in agreement.

“Probably, though since it was such an open attack, it was probably by one of those greedy idiots of the lower nobles houses, and not one of the major houses, those guys are more discreet. Still, they’re probably to milk everything they can from this situation, you had best get prepared for them to arrive soon, there’s not doubt they’re going to try and get Delta disqualified, from today's tournament, it’s already clear that Delta would make a powerful asset for you.”

I groaned and rubbed my forehead.

“I can already feel the headache coming, Theron, have the rest of the tournament put off until tomorrow, and have a council session scheduled, I have a feeling this argument is going to last a few hours...”