Chapter 15 – The Match

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Raziel suddenly stopped fingering me and looked at her clothes on the floor.

“What’s wrong?”

 “I think it’s time, His Majesty is trying to contact me through the communication crystal.”

 “Already?!” I said to her as she got out of bed and started rummaging through her clothes.

“Yeah…” she said pointing at the sun outside the window.

“You’re really going to leave me like this?”

She pondered a bit while looking at me then she bit her lips.

“I’m afraid I have to.”

“Aaah” – I shouted in frustration – “I’m going to slap that king one day.”

“Please don’t”

“I feel the need to slap the shit out of someone though.”

“Are you forgetting why we even stopped?”

“Oh, right. The match.”

Raziel sighed and said “so, are you going to get ready or not?” to me.

I snorted a bit.

“Yes, yes. But we’re going to continue tonight.” I said while getting out of the bed.

Raziel smiled a bit to my words and said “I’m counting on it, but now I have to tell the king that you’ll be ready soon and you have to get dressed.”

“Fine, fine.”

I went to the drawer and took out some simple linen garments. As I started dressing I saw Raziel whispering something in a small dark crystal in a corner of the room.

When she stopped I asked her “what did the king say?”

“That you have to be in the main hall fully equipped in twenty minutes.”

“Got it.” I said while tying the laces of my leather shoes.

“Hey, I have to show you a thing.” I said to Raziel when I finished dressing.

“We don’t really have time.”

“No, no. It will actually speed things up. Trust me.”

“Fine.”

“Look carefully.”

I got in the middle of the room, lifted a hand and said “moon crystal power, make up.”

Soon a light enveloped me and, as I moved my body as if I was dancing, the new gambeson started appearing on me.

Raziel was staring at me with her mouth wide open.

“What was that?”

“A new magic I developed, it allows me to immediately equip anything I have in my storage immediately.”

“That’s… that’s actually amazing. Wait, were that strange chant and the weird poses really necessary?”

“Nope.” I said as the orichalcum armor appeared on me instantly.

Raziel started massaging the top of her nose near the eyes and sighed. She then looked at me and said “are you ready then?”

“Yep.”

“Aren’t you going to wear the sabatons?”

“Nah, they just hinder me.”

“Fine, it’s a bit too early now though.”

I made everything on me disappear into the storage and said “Well, then we might…”

“We don’t have that much time.”

“…fine.” I said, reequipping everything.

“It’s amazing how fast it happens.”

“Well, there was a lot of testing involved before making it this successful…and a lot of errors.”

“Really, what kind of errors?”

“Let’s say that having a helmet appear inside your leg isn’t really funny.”

“Ouch.”

“And you can’t  even imagine how many times I ended up naked in front of Lady Raphael, then there was that time that a gauntlet got stuck in my –“

“Ok stop!”

“It’s not like it got stuck up my ass.”

“Oh good, that’s actually what I was –“

“It got stuck in my pussy.”

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“Oh, come on.”

“It could have actually become something fun if you were there that time.”

Raziel was about to retort to that but stopped and, after thinking about it for a moment, said “yeah, it probably would have.”

I smiled and she smiled back.

“Is that match really that important?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Then I think we’d better go before I decide that these pants are really uncomfortable.”

“I think you’re right.”

I took the rapier and the buckler out of the storage and tied them to my waist while Raziel changed back her appearance to that of Lucilla, then we exited the room and started walking towards the stairs.

When we arrived at the main hall hundreds of fully equipped knights standing in rows were waiting for us. Lucilla remained outside of the hall to keep up her maid farce while I walked in the middle of the room towards the doors that led to the circular throne room. On the sides of the doors there were Gabriel and Lady Raphael standing, waiting for either me or the king.

When I got in front of the doors I bowed to both of them and they opened them. Soon after the king who was waiting on the other side came out of the throne room and I kneeled as I was told to.

(Stupid etiquette, even the king is bothered by it. Couldn’t we all come out of the throne room and skip this shit?)

The king walked up to me and said “Hero Fortuna, it was asked you to show your prowess in a fight against Lord Gabriel and Lady Raphael. Are you ready for this task?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You may rise.”

At his words I stood up in front of him.

“Go and show to all of Phosforia the power of the chosen hero.”

I bowed and said “Yes, sire.”

All the knights turned the other way and started going out of the hall two rows at a time. Before the last row exited Lady Raphael, Gabriel, the king and I went out of the hall, followed by the last group of knights. I looked around but I didn’t see Raziel anymore.

As we were walking in the entrance of the palace Gabriel said to my ear “you were late.”

“No I wasn’t. I was even early, you’re just fixated.” I said whispering.

“No, I’m not. What did you even do all that time in your room?”

“Ladies stuff.”

“I take it that you had sex all day, am I right?”

“So you know about it.”

“Yes, and I would prefer you didn’t risk being late to important events because of that.”

“You’re just jealous I get more pussy than you do.”

I heard Lady Raphael and the king suppress a laugh next to me as we got in the front yard. Gabriel was visibly angry but decided not to make a comeback.

Most of the knights who got out before us were already going towards the city on horseback in two rows; some were being helped by their squires to mount. I saw Raziel next to a group of squires holding the rains of a horse.

Gabriel and Lady Raphael went in front of me and the king and mounted on two horses while Raziel walked towards me and a squire took a horse to the king.

“My Hero, here’s your steed.” Said Raziel while she positioned the horse next to me.

“Thank you my fair lady.”

I got on the horse with the help of Raziel as a couple of knights behind us gave us strange looks and started walking the horse behind Gabriel with the king next to me.

We walked through the streets of the capital surrounded as a crowd gathered on our sides. Cheers could be heard here and there, all the people seemed in jubilation for the event and when we finally arrived at the arena in the second ring of the capital the crowd exploded in excitement.

We entered the arena with a small group of knights. The stands were full of people and immediately over the wall were the stands began a group of mages were setting up a barrier.

We all dismounted from our horses and the personnel of the arena took them outside. The knights went to stand by the wall and the king went at the center of the arena.

“My people. We are here today to celebrate the prowess of the Holy Olivedias Kingdom with a match between two of the best fighters of our kingdom, Lord Gabriel and Lady Raphael, the blessed ones” – Gabriel and Lady Raphael saluted the crowd when the king said their names and cheers came from all around us – “and the hero from another world, Hero Fortuna.”

More cheers came as I too saluted the crowd.

The king then turned towards us and said “may the goddess be in your favor.”

We bowed to the king and he left.

When the king reappeared in the royal balcony we were already in position for the fight: Gabriel, sword and shield in hand, and Lady Raphael were one next to the other on one side of the arena while I was facing them on the opposite side with the rapier and buckler.

“May the fight begin.”

At the words of the king I found myself already in the defensive as Lady Raphael tried to control my blood with water magic which I managed to prevent using water magic myself while Gabriel dashed towards me.

I threw rocks with earth magic against both of them as I strengthened myself with body reinforcement magic. Gabriel swiftly evaded them while Lady Raphael used an earth wall to protect herself.

When Gabriel got right in front of me I feigned a thrust to his eyes with the long rapier and, as he brought his shield up I side-stepped and equipped the halberd putting the rapier and buckler in the storage while defending myself from Raphael’s icicles with a wall of fire which I then sent towards her.

Halberd in hand I twisted my body and hit Gabriel on the shoulder with the horn. He staggered for a moment and I tried to thrust with the spike to his visor but a thunder came from Raphael who was high above me.

I jumped back to evade the thunder strike and sent a burst of flames towards Gabriel. Raphael had to raise an earth wall to protect him and I used the chance to fly to her and try hitting her with the halberd.

Finding herself unable to create an elemental shield in such a short time she had to protect herself with a pure mana barrier but the hit still sent her flying into the arena wall.

I started shooting fireballs towards Gabriel but he had activated will of the knight and evaded them all.

A sudden blast of air pushed me to the ground but I managed to land on my feet and sent a rock towards Raphael who evaded it.

Gabriel ran up to me but I created an earth wall in front of him and pushed against it to fly towards Raphael.

She sent a huge fireball towards me; I struck the ground with the halberd and pole vaulted over it while still using air magic to direct my flight.

When I got near her I swung my halberd again and shattered the wall she had created sending her flying against Gabriel who was running towards us.

He caught her and put her back on her feet.

Lady Raphael used air magic to accelerate Gabriel who was running towards me while sending thunder strikes to me.

I started evading the thunders and when Gabriel got in front of me I swung my halberd to his helmet but he intercepted it with his shield. He tried to thrust at my armpits but I opened my mouth and breathed fire on his face.

He jumped back and Raphael started sending other thunders towards me.

“Hey, what’s with all these thunders? I don’t need a dancer trophy. You know?” I said while evading them.

“Shut up you dragon wannabe.”

I threw the still staggered Gabriel against her with air magic, then flew to her while still evading her lightning strikes and created an earth dome around them as she stopped Gabriel from hitting her.

I threw a blast of flames in the only opening I had left in the dome.

My flames were interrupted by the words of the king who said “that’s it. I think we have a winner.”

The crowd exploded again in cheers as the earth dome collapsed.

The healers came into the arena and brought us in the arena infirmary for a quick fixing.

I looked at Gabriel and Lady Raphael in front of me as a healer checked me.

“You held back quite a bit.”

“Not that much, really.” Said Gabriel as a man healed his burns.

After the fight we were made to attend at a public party held in the largest square of the capital.

Every now and then someone toasted for a reason or another, sometimes to the king, sometimes to the kingdom, sometimes to me, Lady Raphael and Gabriel and sometimes to the soldiers of the kingdom.

After hours of eating and drinking we finally went back to the palace, where Raziel was waiting with a hot bath ready.

As I was putting my dirty clothes on the shelves in the bathroom Raziel hugged me from behind, started caressing me and said “should we resume from where we left?”

I tilted my head to the side, she kissed me.

When our lips separated I smiled and said “sure.”