Chapter 8 - Don't Make Bets Against A God King
“Bet?” Lord Dougan took a step back as he met my cold gaze. He was clearly not used to people being so unaffected by his threats.
“Let me make it simple for you. For each time your bodyguards makes a move against me I’ll return it with one of my own, directly to your face.”
“D-Do you have a death wish?” Dougan exclaimed, “My bodyguards are both Level 250 S-Prestige Templars, they are veterans who fought for the King in the Shadowlands. A single strike from one of them will send you straight to the grave!”
Templars were a balanced class that focused on technical skills to gain the advantage in all types of situations. I had recruited and trained a number of my soldiers into Templars. At level 250, both of the men in front of me were strong enough to be at the captain rank. I wasn’t too surprised to see Templars under the employ of a noble. With the war coming to an end, I allowed the soldiers to leave the ranks of the army to reduce the cost of upkeep.
Though Templars were great all-around fighters, they were not the best at any one thing. In a war, this versatility was highly useful, however one on one they could be overwhelmed by a more skilled or powerful opponent.
Even though I had levelled up to level 71 from my encounter with Fake Yuto, there was still a massive gap between the power of the S-Prestige knights and myself. Like he said, this body probably wouldn’t be able to withstand a strike from them. Of course, that was assuming they could hit me.
“One move, one face strike.” I repeated, completely immune to his threats. “You decide how much of a beating you want.”
The entire room looked towards the noble who was trembling out of frustration and anger. It was bad enough that he was flaunting his power and taking advantage of innocent girls, but since it wasn’t their business the other patrons kept their eyes to themselves. But now this ‘innocent girl’ was directly opposing him and making him look trite and foolish. He had never been so disrespected in his life!
As he felt the weight of judging eyes around him, Dougan’s attitude became even more frenzied.
“Th-that’s a clear threat against me!” Dougan bellowed, his face turning completely red in indignation. “Guards, grab her!”
The guards approached me from either side of the table. With a sigh, I stood up from my seat. The one on my left acted first, reaching out to grab me with a lunge.
“That’s one!” I said as I leapt onto the table, easily dodging the move. I launched forwards directly towards Lord Dougan, who failed to react before I greeted his face with my foot. He staggered backwards as blood and broken teeth spurted from his mouth. He cried out in pain, his hands flying up to his face.
I landed on the ground, hearing the sound of swords being drawn from behind me as the Templar bodyguards immediately rushed at me. The Templar on the right lunged towards me from across the room in a single motion. I spun to the side, feeling the air rush past me as I dodged the blade.
In the corner of my vision several words popped up. New Skill Logged: Crusader Knight Level 119 Blitz Strike.
This was one of the main features of the Status HUD. Every time an ability was directed at me the HUD would log it and provide a detailed description of the move. This didn’t work for passives or indirect abilities, though there were other ways to add those to the log. In my previous body I had spent a long time building up my compendium of abilities, but it had been completely wiped from the body swap.
For combat skills, each ability had a specific wind up and path of travel. This made them predictable, but provided benefits such as amplified speed, power or other effects. Since they boosted the natural limits of the human body, they were incredibly useful, especially against opponents who weren’t familiar with the moves.
Of course, since these were my own soldiers I knew exactly what they could do, even without the Status HUD’s help.
L104 Flash Blade! L135 Cleave! L152 Excelsior! Tables splintered around me and tavern patrons scattered as I dodged around the room, narrowly evading attack after attack in deft acrobatic motions. No matter how hard they tried they couldn’t touch me. The inside of the tavern was being torn up as they continued to escalate the strength of their attacks.
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“How is this possible?” Lord Dougan yelled, “You guys are S-Prestige Veterans and you can’t even take down a single girl!”
“She’s fast!” One of the Templar said.
“Don’t give me excuses! Give me results!” He shrieked.
The bodyguards kept themselves between me and Lord Dougan, but they continuously failed to hit me even once. Not every attack they threw at me was an ability, but the regular strikes were even easier to dodge.
“That’s seven more!” I yelled, ducking under the arm of the Templar to break past him.
Dougan screamed as he raised his arms out in front of him and shut his eyes. I slipped past his arms and delivered a rapid flurry of empty handed strikes. He staggered back and I ended the combo with a flush kick to the side of his face. He flew across the floor, tumbling through chairs and tables.
“Stop!” He cried as blood dripped out of his mouth. He held one hand out towards me as he hid his face with the other. “I give up!”
I ducked another swing and immediately followed up with a kick to the other side of Dougan’s face. “I stop when they stop!”
“Stop! Stop fighting!” Dougan yelled as he held his hands out to the bodyguards. His face was a beaten into a bloody, misshapen pulp as he pleaded to his men. The Templar stopped in their tracks and Lord Nougan whimpered and sunk pitifully to the floor.
I stood over him with a scowl.
“I’m sorry, it’s my fault!” He said, “Please have mercy on me.”
The tavern had mostly been vacated as most of the patrons and workers had run out onto the streets when the fighting started. Even the city guards had left, wanting nothing to do with a fight involving Templar. Only a few curious onlookers remained, watching from the sides of the room and the second floor balcony. Half of the tables on the floor had been smashed, with debris and splinters strewn about. Several windows had been shattered. The damage had all been done by the high level abilities of the Templar as they tried desperately to catch me.
A bang at the front doors turned my attention away from Lord Dougan as a number of city guards in yellow livery rushed in. In the center of the group a distinguished man in rich purple robes strode in. His massive beard gave him the appearance of a lion as he looked around the tavern with a stern gaze. Behind them, a crowd of people were looking on curiously.
The two Templar immediately knelt before the man as he entered.
“What happened here?” He demanded.
“Father!” Lord Dougan exclaimed.
The elder man stepped forward, ignoring my presence as he looked down on his son whose face as a bloody mess.
“Th-that girl! She attacked me! Look what she did to me!” He pointed at me, pushing himself up to his knees and sobbing as he crawled over to his father.
“I heard all about what happened.” Elder Dougan spoke. “You caused a fight in one of the most respectable taverns in the city! Look at all the damage you’ve done! You’ve put shame on the family name!”
With that he stepped forward and slapped Lord Dougan directly across the face, causing him to tumble across the floor.
“Father!” Dougan cried.
The distinguished man pulled off the bloodied leather glove on his hands and folded it up with a look of disgust. He looked over to me with a cold expression.
“I will clean this up. Get out and don’t return.” He said to me dismissively.
I had no problem leaving at this point, so I quickly turned and walked past the guards out of the front door. The crowd gave way to me, murmuring to themselves as I walked down the street and turned the corner. I checked my experience gauge and found that I had levelled up another 4 levels from the fight, putting me at 75.
In addition to Shadow Meld and its related abilities, I also now had Level 35 Blind, a short range ability that blinded a target for several seconds. Currently its duration was 5 seconds and its range 10 feet, though as I increased in level the values would increase. In addition I had Level 44 Evasion, which was a passive that significantly boosted my reflexes. I was able to sense imminent danger and react to it even if I didn’t see or hear it directly.
The sky was painted in swaths of turquoise and coral as I headed towards the city limits. Darkness would fall soon. When the sun completely set, I would need to be completely out of the city. This was because at night a Shadowkind would change to their true form. A simple bandana would not be enough to hide my secret.
In addition, I knew that the Earl of Elkhaven wouldn’t simply let me walk away. The Earl was the head of one of the powerful aristocratic families in the Kingdom from before I had become King. Although I didn’t have close ties to him, he was one of the more powerful aristocrats in the Kingdom, with a lot of influence on the production and distribution of weapons and armour. He was exceptionally proud and fierce, and put a high value on how people perceived him.
I had figured that the only reason he let me go was because he couldn’t let his reputation be tarnished further after the shameful actions of his son. Letting me go was ‘just’, since I was obviously the one who was wronged.
But that was only in public. In private, he would definitely want to take vengeance against me, for defying his son. An act against his son was indirectly an act against him. He was not the type of person to let that slide.
Unfortunately for him, he’d never have the chance to catch me. As soon as I was out of sight of other people I pressed my hand against a wall, my body instantly merging into the shadows.
With a series of jumps along the long shadows cast by the setting sun, I quickly made my way out of the city.
Next stop: Grace Village, to visit my old “friend” Yylisie.