The day started with a scream. An [Ice Mirror] revealed that I look terrible. Cuts and bruises everywhere. My hair was a mess again. My clothes were all torn. In short, I was a mess.
“How unsexy.” The morning was spent continuing to heal myself and find some berries. Tikka had also taught me a secret recipe of some sort of potion equivalent using coconut milk for my hair.
I looked presentable after 3 hours. I had clothing stored in my dimensional pocket so that was the easiest problem to solve. There were no humans around so I could use magic as I normally would. The only issue was that my hair wasn’t braided but that was a minor issue. My fan unfolded and started to ascend with me standing on it. It was time to make it move. So far, I’ve only been able to move it to the side, enough to evade trees flying at me.
“I don’t feel like walking back so can you bring me home, please?”
The fan moved. I forgot that it’s actually a part of me. It shouldn’t be hard to make it do what I want.
The village came in sight after 40 minutes and I landed in the village. The hairpin went back into my hair. I had been away for 4 days but life went on in this village as if that never happened but that’s fine.
I went to visit Jafliximus.
Jach’a ran at me. “There you are! You see…”
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I was livid. The door to Kuska’s house got kicked in. He was enjoying dinner with his wives.
“Any words before I send you to your maker?” A tear escaped from my eye.
“Oh, so you’re back. I was wondering if you died in the jungle.” He was playing with his whip. The whip I had confiscated from him. It had some blood on it.
“You are irredeemable. How could you do that to him!? He was such a sweet alpaca!”
“Sweet he is indeed! Goes well with my peppers!” He was pointing at the meat on his table.
“Unforgivable! Not only did you mess with me... you… why? Why did you had to kill Jafliximus!” My hair started to act like it was made out of water as tears fell from my eyes.
“That stupid alpaca gave me trouble. I broke into your house to get my whip back but that stupid furball barred my way. Look at what he did!” Kuska pointed at his ear or rather his lack of an ear. It had been burnt off. “And since I was wondering what to have for lunch I thought, why not?” Kuska got up, gestured to his wives and gripped the whip. “He was tasty. You look delicious too, so how about it? Want to join me?”
I pulled out my hairpin and a mana wave burst out.
“Ah right, you were from a different continent where they waste their mana on fights. You will be even more delicious after I conquer you like this.”
Kuska started to give off a very dangerous aura. It was extremely intimidating. I pointed my folded fan at him and used [Azure petals].
His whip ignited and the petals got smacked down. I got hit a couple of times but it didn’t hurt, at least not as much as losing Jafliximus. The fan unfolded and I swung it. The house and everything in it got blown away and replaced by ice.
“Whoa so strong! Just as I like it!”
Kuska seemed to be unaffected. It was the red beast all over again. What do I need to do to defeat the inhabitants of this continent? A whip cracked and I used [Azure Petals] to block the attacks. I glided on my fan out of his range and started shooting [Flares] at him. Nothing connected. I tried everything but he was just too fast. He even took a hit of a [Flare] to test how much damage it would do but it didn’t seem to do much. Why did Jafliximus’ [Fireball] do so much damage to him?
Is there something I don’t understand? My vision got blurry as the loss of Jafliximus was still on my mind and tears welled up. [Torrential Downpour] and [Azure Spear] were up next. I was personally casting those so no [Azure Hairpins].
The villagers had started betting again. Nobody seemed to care that I was out to kill Kuska. There are some unspoken rules in this village. If you mess with someone and he kicks your ass or kills you, it means that you weren’t strong enough to mess with him in the first place.
Everyone knew how much Jafliximus meant to me and everyone knows that if Kuska dies, he wasn’t strong enough to mess with me. Strange rules but they somehow work. The same goes for houses. And that’s why they bet on whose house gets destroyed. If the house gets destroyed, it means that the house wasn’t strong enough.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The [Azure Spears] rained down but none hit Kuska. The rain only made his magical weapon less effective. The whip wrapped around me and pulled me in.
“Get over here!”
“Let me go you brute!” The fan followed me. I folded it and smacked it at him but he caught it with one hand.
“So this is how foreigners fight. Quite slow. Your attacks sting though.”
The hairpin went back into my hair. It turned into my hat and I headbutted him.
His grip loosened and I escaped and my hat went back to being a hairpin and I pulled out my hairpin.
“Ah.. hahaha that hurt!” He disappeared from sight. Behind me? I don’t have combat sense if it's physical. I covered myself in ice and got sent flying moments later.
“Ouch!” I swung my fan and the area froze. The rain made this more effective and he got frozen. The ice shook and he broke out. “Stupid musclehead! Just go down!”
“Ohh you like these muscles, you can touch them all you want in the bedroom.”
“Eww! Absolutely not!” I grabbed the fan with both hands, dug my heels in the ground, spun around my axis and used [Mistflower Field] as I swung the fan. The mist flowers crashed into him creating deep cuts. This would normally tear my opponents to pieces…
“Oh so you like flowers.” He swung his whip around and it made fire patterns around him appear. “Hmm, this rain makes this useless.”
Kuska tossed his whip aside and cracked his knuckles. He suddenly appeared in front of me. I hid behind my fan. Something collided into my fan, his fist or his body, but I got sent flying again. I cancelled the momentum by swinging the fan behind me. What are my options? I can’t hit him and if I do it hardly does damage. One of my strongest skills just gave him some cuts and [Azure Mist] doesn’t work because he doesn’t use mana.
I floated up and was looking down on Kuska. “Hey! Come down here!”
I used [Frozen Ground], made him slip, and froze his pants to the floor. It was a move I've seen one of my saviours use several times. I admit it’s funny.
“Hey! What the…”
Maybe this is the answer. I need to control him before I hit him. I never had issues with accuracy. I sent more [Azure Spears] at him. This freak abandoned his pants…
“Ewww! Are you that desperate?!” I started throwing more [Azure Spears] at him.
“Hey you froze my pants to the floor! This is your fault!”
“Liar!” I had to make sure I wouldn’t vomit from his disgusting display. “Ugh, you disgust me.”
This seemed to do more damage to him than any attack I threw at him.
“Don’t worry you will come to love it!”
My hand shook as I was holding back. I almost dropped [Meteor] on him. [Meteor] eh? Maybe...maybe his water magic resistance is just high and fire would work. I opened the magic circle of [Meteor]. I have nothing against this village but this musclehead needs to go.
I flew up higher to stay out of his range. Also to be unable to see his meat whip.
The area of effect of [Meteor] needs to decrease. It needs more power in case this guy can evade it. Hmm maybe make it activate on a smack. I will have to get close but killing him with a [Meteor Slap] will feel so much more satisfying. Yes it’s time to create a [Meteor slap]. This would take only 20 seconds if I had my laboratory setup but it was finished after messing with runes and moving them around for 15 minutes.
I made sure to keep the Musclehead busy by raining down more [Azure Spears].
“Haha wow Azu! How much mana do you have! You and me could rule the continent!”
I landed and folded my fan. I put my charm magic to work.
“Fine, let’s hear what you have to say.” I fished out a pair of pants out of my dimensional pocket and threw it at him.
“Put that on and tell me everything you want from me.” I simultaneously used [Seduce] and it landed.
He put on his pants like a horny dog and approached me, having let his guard down because of [Seduce].
“Well…”
I put all my strength in the [Meteor Slap] and smacked his head with my fan.
The area heat up immensely and a bright flash of white and yellow erupted simultaneously with immense heat, causing a large explosion.
I got launched for the umpteenth time this week and crashed into a building.
“Ugh, I need to find something to deal with getting sent flying.” I crawled out of the rubble. The rubble of my house. I had bet on my house getting destroyed. I fist pumped and looked at the result of my [Meteor Slap].
I looked at the small crater. He was still standing but his head was cleanly blown off.
“Is he dead?” I walked over. He was dead. Why was his body still standing? I gave it a light push. It didn’t budge. I gave it a big push; it still didn’t budge. I took some distance.
“It’s hard to believe that this guy was a human…”
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The aftermath was ugly. A lot of people were happy as their bets had paid off. More people had bet on Kuska winning so a lot of people had gotten a lot of mana but… Everyone now knew that I had a lot of mana. And while I was used to gazes filled with lust, the gazes filled with greed were those I wasn’t familiar with and I hated it.
If any of these guys are as strong as Kuska then I’m in trouble. They don’t even need to be as strong. Their speed and toughness are a problem. I can’t stay here…
Some villagers kept those filled with greed away and helped me. I was tired, upset, angry, sad, hungry. So many things to process but hardly any time.
Inti was very helpful. He made sure to gather a lot of supplies. He even wrote a small booklet in Kaledonian for me to help me on my travels as he was sure that staying here would be a bad idea. I agreed but… this place had been my home for 3 years. I didn’t feel good to leave it behind. Moreover, Jafliximus… I cried a lot.
Inti and his son spent the rest of the day keeping the greedy villagers away while I paid my respects to Jafliximus and processed what had happened.
I wanted to stay longer but the state Inti and Q’illu were in when they returned home late in the night told me enough. I can’t stay here.
“Thank you everyone. I won’t forget this debt.” I wiped off some tears.
“There is no debt. We’ve already told you; you gave us enough mana to last almost a lifetime. Now go! We wore them out but they will be back in the morning!”
Inti pushed a map in my hands. “It is a trail I’ve found on one of my many travels. Not many know of it. Take it, you should be relatively safe taking it. And don’t forget! Mana is precious on this continent! Don’t throw it around like you did this morning!”
I nodded, grabbed all my belongings and ran off into the night.