There were few things that made Adrian as anxious as the result of his first actual battle. It was the first real fight he’d be in. There would be no pauses or judges to stop the fight, and if he got caught unaware, he’d die. If he slipped and missed an attack instead of having it matter, then he’d die.

That realization made him want to rethink his decisions and return to the city, but by the time the thought crossed his mind, they were a dozen miles away.

They were on a different road from the one that led them to the Dreamy Firmament City. They were tasked with the eradication of an Aural Beasts infestation around fifty kilometers east of the city on the road that led to the Imperial Capital.

Or at least on the road that would eventually reach the capital, for there were several large cities along the way.

“Can you let go now?” whispered Adrian.

What he was used to was having Emma stuck to him when he was walking around, but it was making his shoulders stiff to have her lean on him like that for so long. Especially when they were sitting on a bench with several others.

She shook her head.

“Little Miss Beaumont,” said the Titan loudly, “I heard that ye survived all alone in the mountains. That ought to have been difficult. I suppose ye know your way around killing them beasts, eh?”

He was sitting on the bench on the other side, with seven others. Each bench had eight seats and two of them in both of the carts meant that it fit them perfectly. Next to him was Diana, his daughter.

“I don’t need your compliments,” snapped Emma.

Was she angry?

“Ah, excuse my manners,” said the Titan and he nodded with a closed mouth a few times. When he opened his mouth next, he was quieter, “I thought that it’d be a good idea to ask. I suppose it wasn’t.”

She looked away, which had the added benefit of letting Adrian’s shoulders rest for a few seconds after the heavy head stopped resting on it. Even if looking away meant awkwardly looking back at the road.

“That said, I heard ye beat my daughter in the festival. Adrian, was it?” asked the Titan, his voice louder again, “I happened to miss it. How’d ye do it? Fair and square? Cheap and dirty? Overwhelmingly or just barely?”

“Barely, with a trick,” said Adrian.

The fact that he’d let Adrian rest his shoulders for a few seconds earned a favor from Adrian, and answering the question was the least he could do.

“Ha! So ye got done in by a cheap shot!” shouted the Titan with a massive grin, which was more bared teeth than a smile.

Diana was uncharacteristically quiet.

“That’s a good thing ye did there, lad. She had to learn one way or another. That tricks are an essential part of fighting, eh,” said the Titan, “Especially in fights like these. Ones that you stake your life in.”

The Titan was the first person that didn’t berate him for cheating.

“Let’s have a round,” said Diana as she pounced up, her eyes wide and fists tightly clenched, “I can down you in three moves. Try every one of your cheap shots, but they won’t get me again.”

“As I said before, you’re stronger,” said Adrian.

“But he thinks you’re stronger,” hissed Diana and came up to him, and then she pulled out a knife from a holster at her thighs. She put it against his neck in a moment and pushed him into the cloth that was the wall of the cart, “Stand up. We’re having a match.”

“That’s my fiancé you’re laying your dirty paws on,” said Emma, her tone lower than normal.

“Huh?” growled Diana, an eyebrow raised.

“I said you’re dirtying my fiancé with that dirty paw of yours. I want those hands on the ground in five seconds. Whether they be attached to the rest of your body or not is up to you,” said Emma and produced her saber from her Spatial Ring, “That’s three seconds now.”

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“Ryan, halt!” shouted the Titan and the carriage slowed down to a halt.

In the blink of an eye, Emma’s saber was near the hand that Diana held her knife in. Just when Adrian thought that Diana did indeed lose her hand, he saw the Titan pull his daughter away while still sitting, showcasing his size.

A grown man could lie sideways and he’d perfectly fit the width of the carriage, making it an impressive feat.

“Since ye lasses are so intent on fighting, why don’t ye take it outside? And make a show out of it, while you’re at it,” the Titan said and clapped a few times, “Alright, we’re making a stop, everyone!”

“I’ll have to chop off that paw of yours to remind you of your place,” said Emma and swung her sword downward, making a swishing sound before letting the sword slip back into her Spatial Ring.

“Don’t,” said Adrian and grabbed Emma’s wrist, “It’s a waste of time.”

“Let go,” whispered Emma.

“What if I don’t?” asked Adrian.

“You want to lose your paw too? Like that peasant,” asked Emma, and for the first time, Adrian saw a cold gleam in her eyes: a look that he’d never seen on her.

He let go and raised both hands in the air.

“You’re the boss,” he said and stepped back into the shadows of the cart as everyone jumped out of it, eager to watch the match. As always, Emma wanted to be fashionably late so she was the last to remain, aside from Adrian, of course. Just before she left, he added, “Don’t get hurt.”

“It’s just a stray mutt,” she said.

Why was she so angry?

Everyone had made a circle and with Adrian’s height, it would’ve been impossible to see the match unless he was at the very front. Thankfully, he was in the cart and that let him get a perfect view.

He’d accidentally secured himself a great vantage point.

“I feel pity for the child with the knife. She poked a hornet’s nest with it,” whispered the Shadow inside Adrian’s head.

“Haven’t heard from you for a while,” said Adrian out loud, as no one could possibly hear him.

“I happen to love sleeping,” it said.

The match started and both of them walked around in a circle, one with a knife in hand and the other with her sword.

Did Diana always fight with a dagger or was it because of the hunt?

Diana used the same trick she used on Adrian before and used a Far Step to step forward. But just as Diana’s elongated leg hit the ground, Emma was already there. Before she could pull herself forward, the tip of Emma’s blade dug into her flash and came out of the other side, eliciting a scream.

Before the scream even ended, Emma pulled the saber out of Diana’s leg and in the same motion, sliced through Diana’s hand like a warm knife through butter. That made Diana’s scream restart before it ended.

It plopped to the ground and Adrian couldn’t hold back the urge to vomit. He put his palm over his mouth and gagged.

There was something unnatural about the way a hand fell to the ground with none of the control or motions it should have. The knife in Diana’s now-severed hand fell to the ground as the muscles stopped holding her fingers together.

That’s when Adrian saw it.

There came a surge of the colorful mist that he knew as Qi, which flew up and dissipated into the large mass that was produced by the forest.

Diana lied there, tears streaming down her face while she screamed. She was hugging her knees on the ground.

Adrian turned away his eyes.

She went too far.

“I wonder. What made her hate peasants so?” mumbled the Shadow and chuckled eerily, “If her soul had been sold to me, she’d have made an excellent disciple.”

Adrian couldn’t even throw a witty remark back at the Shadow.

“Whew,” whistled the Titan and picked up Diana’s hand. He looked at it from each side and threw it aside, then knelt down next to Diana, “We’ll get you a new hand once we get back to the city. I know a guy.”

But Emma wasn’t done yet.

She stabbed her sword into the ground right next to Diana’s head and squatted down next to her, “Look at me or him with that look again, and I’ll poke out your eyes, understood? And don’t even think about laying your other paw on him.”

Emma then hopped back to her feet and let her sword fade into her ring, a smile on her face. It looked eerie with the slight splash of blood on her face. That made the circle walk aside as she walked back to the cart.

“Splendid job, Miss Beaumont. I assume my daughter’s learned yet another lesson today,” said the Titan and he chuckled. He gestured with a hand and one of his men threw him a Sense Severance Elixir, which he poured into Diana’s mouth.

As if she could finally breathe again, Diana sucked in an exorbitant amount of air with wide eyes. Even if she couldn’t feel it, she was bleeding severely.

Emma took a seat at the edge toward the front of the carriage and tapped the bench next to her as if beckoning him to sit there.

“You went too far,” whispered Adrian.

“It’s just a peasant,” said Emma and rested her head on his shoulder again, “I’ll be sleeping. Don’t move.”

The slash from the tournament was dangerous and most definitely painful, but it wasn’t this severe. While Cultivators could recover from flesh wounds in a few days' time, a limb that was cut off wouldn’t be healed.

Only immortals could possibly replace a limb that had been slashed off, but imitating it with a weapon wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Especially if it was only a hand, but still…

“This is the world of Cultivators, brat. You want to reach its peak, do you not? Then make yourself at home, because the world won’t change itself to fit you in,” said the Shadow, and Adrian bit his lips.

He didn’t vomit, at least.

Even now, he could hear Diana grunting and screaming.

It was too overwhelming.