Velvet stared at Dianthus’ back, who was having some silent staredown contest with Igern, and then to her sides.

To her right was the water canal she had navigated before. To her left an empty street. And behind her was another possible exit.

She took a step back carefully, testing the waters. Dianthus moved his hand, making a short sweeping motion.

The whole river rose, floating. It changed course, going around the two possible streets Velvet could escape for, before going back to the canal.

“Wow, thanks for nothing…” She said, now stuck between two Arhontissians and a floating river.

Dianthus ignored Velvet's complaints. He had appeared sooner than needed, because he wanted to take Igern out before the exit closed. Igern was a problem, one he didn’t want to be checking for once shit hit the fan.

Looking into Igern’s thoughts, he was already about to attack him.

He didn’t even bother to ask me why… C’mon, aren’t you even a bit curious?

Igern launched himself against Dianthus, spear ready. Dianthus answered by pulling out his own weapon, a sword.

They exchanged blows, the weapons clashing, sparks raining. Dianthus grit his teeth, taking a step back one after another. His breath came out in mist, and his feet were getting covered in frost.

So that’s what Igern’s spear does. Velvet noticed, seeing how Dianthus was slowly losing ground. So much for that wannabe cool entrance.

The combat ended once Igern made several ice spears sprout from the ground, nailing Dianthus before stabbing him, his spear crossing his body side to side.

He then raised his hand, creating several ice greatswords, and smashing them against Dianthus. Or whatever remained of him after this.

Velvet’ smile flinched, feeling Igern’s reaction a bit… over exaggerated.

“Igern?” She called for the guy, who kept attacking the remains.

He stopped, clicking his tongue. “What?”

“I think he's already dead.”

Igern stared at her in silence. “No. He won’t ta-”

A compressed, potent water stream came from the river, hitting Igern across the street, smashing him to a wall.

Dianthus got up, his clothes all tattered and bloody, unlike his body. He looked down, caressing his hand over them, the stab holes mending and the blood disappearing in a red mist.

“Wha…” Understanding now what Hyde meant by the Chosen One’s immortality, Velvet complained. “That's not fair at all!”

“Life isn’t fair. Get used to it.” Dianthus answered nonchalantly.

“I don’t mean life. I meant the Arena rules. That clearly was a ‘Life threatening wound’.”

“And I’m above the rules.” He joked, shrugging. “Just kidding. Those rules depend on the mage. Look at Igern.” He pointed to the guy, who was getting up, again. “If that was… let’s say, you. You would be out by now.”

“So, for you, which no wound can be considered ‘life threatening’, those rules are basically no rules, am I wrong?” Velvet finished Dianthus' sentence, ignoring the clear underlying threat.

“Exactly. I’m simply built different.”

Both Velvet and him stared at each other in silence.

“Igern, I’m so sorry…” Velvet said, with pity. “I was accusing you of being such a sour ass, and didn’t realize you had to fight against an eternal battle of attrition… even when you’re more strong, skilled, beautiful, better company…”

“You made up the last part.” Dianthus interrupted her, not discussing the other points.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You just came here saying ‘I’m above the rules’, so no.”

“And I didn’t stab you, try to kill you or harm you.”

“Oh, so that’s the bar we are setting? We can still go lower!”

“Not my fault all the men around your age want to kick your ass. You put the bar there yourself.”

Dianthus referred to Alrai, Ethra and Igern himself. Maybe Agorn too.

“That’s a lie, you are nitpicking. I’ll say around half of them do.” She had Nereus, Syon and Skogul at her side… more or less.

“Still sounds like a you issue…”

“Shut up.” Igern groaned. “Both of you.” He had tried, keyword tried, to take a small rest, since, unlike Dianthus, he couldn’t heal wounds, but the babbling of the two idiots quickly got to his nerves.

“Okay, okay.” Dianthus said, walking towards him while spinning the sword in his hands like a baton. “Well, Igern, you woke me up so nicely today, so I’m putting you to sleep. No hard feelings.”

“Fuck you.”

“C’mon dude, you can do bett-”

Boom!

A paper figurine, the last one, teleported behind Dianthus, exploding next to his head. He recoiled, wincing in pain, his right eardrum busted. That didn’t prevent the left one from hearing Velvet’s taunt.

“Woops! Hand slipped!”

Several vines sprouted from the floor, directed to both of them. Dianthus cut the ones closest to him, while Igern froze the others. “Let me guess, slip of hand again?”

“I just woke up so clumsy!” The cut vines started quickly rotting, releasing some sleeping charms.

Clumsy my ass! Dianthus thought, I can see you doing sketchy shit back there! He felt approaching danger, turning to block Igern’s spear attack.

“I am immune to sleep curses! But Igern isn’t!”

“He can become my sleeping prince then.” Was what Velvet’s mouth said.

He can go down first then. Was what Velvet’s thoughts said.

Dianthus’ smile twitched. Can you stop with the mixed signals? I am on your side!

By wanting to prevent you from escaping!

…

Velvet was going through her bag of seeds way too fast for her liking. It wasn’t her fault, Dianthus had closed her exits with a damn floating river.

“Think I can pull his soul into the cursed mirror?” She asked her companion. “He will be fine anyway.”

“Oho,” She heard Hyde’s mocking tone. “So now the duck who looks, talks and behaves like a duck is no longer a duck.”

“He lost his duck privileges right now. Say, wanna see if I can use the chaining sigil on his skin?”

“Do you even need to ask?”

“The problem lies in touching him long enough… Maybe if Igern collaborated.”

“Wouldn’t bet on it.”

“Hyde, I'm running out of seeds. I need solutions, not complaints.”

“Well, we’re out of luck.”

“Luck, hm.”

“...”

“...”

“No.”

“Yes, I’m sure it's gonna work.” Velvet rummaged in search for the luck charms. “Oh, yes. Luck, fate, send me a hero.”

Velvet saw the luck charms failing, her luck getting worse. She chuckled, using a few more. Due to her luck being bad already, the charms kept on failing.

…

Dianthus saw Velvet doing stuff in the background, laughing to herself. He didn’t like it at all, and her thoughts were a mixture of ‘This is gonna be so hilarious if it works’ and ‘This is going to go horrible, but at least I can finally be rid of these useless charms’.

He wanted to stop her, but the endless stream of vines and Igern weren’t making it easy. Especially Igern.

It's not like he was getting tired, or something like that. Velvet could be scheming all day, and every single idea would be useless once put in practice, but he had to make sure she stayed put. And unharmed, which she seemed adamant in trying not to be.

He felt two mages getting closer to them, and he didn’t need to check their thoughts to know who they were.

There were only two mages she could attract with bad luck.

“Sorry Igern, it's fun to see you try over and over again, but now you really have to go.” Dianthus said, converging all the sleeping charms Velvet had put on the vines and slamming them against Igern.

Velvet flinched, feeling her control over the vines just slipping away, becoming unable to recover it.

“Since when could you do that?” She asked, resignation in her face.

“Since the start. That’s why mages don’t tend to use magic from unrelated Paradigms, it makes the spells easier to hijack.”

“From mages from the spell’s original Paradigm, not anyone. But, let me guess, you’re also above those rules?”

“Nice to see you’re starting to understand.” Velvet’s… no, Dianthus’ vines turned around, going towards Velvet. “And now, you’re going to stay put while I deal with your mess.”

The mess in question arrived at that moment.

Ethra Graham and Alrai Siberetti.