Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.11]
The explosive movements took Zeph by surprise. Lucas looked as if he put himself on fire, the red haze caused by the release of Magicules pushing away the dirt and grass in his vicinity as he was catapulted forward.
Kwan’s cleaver shined green as she swung in a descending half circle, upturning the ground beneath her feet in a wide radius as it all moved all at once in the opposite direction.
There was no clash. He barely noticed that Kwan did a half pirouette while moving to the side, using the inertia of her weapon to her advantage and dodging a thrust that left a visible trace in the air.
Her swing was way too slow to pose a threat for Lucas.
Following the movement, she positioned the cleaver at her side like a shield, just in time to stop another thrust.
An explosion of force threw the combatants away. Electric arcs formed between their bodies and the ground as both fought for traction.
It became obvious that the cleaver wasn’t just a simple weapon. Knowing Ghrughah and P’pfel, what they saw didn’t show even half of its abilities.
The red haze condensed around Lucas as he changed the stance, turning sideways and pulling his main weapon back while still keeping it pointed at Kwan.
In a similar manner, Kwan bent her knees and put her weapon to the side.
She was at a disadvantage because of her lacking speed. Even with the Hannyajin’s inherent physical prowess, Lucas held an obvious advantage in that regard. Especially because his weapons were designed to further enhance that very aspect, while Kwan’s was big and clumsy in comparison.
Nonetheless, her bloodthirsty smile widened even more, finally breaking the tender skin and uncovering the second row of elongated fangs hidden beneath. Her lips and thin teeth were painted bright red as her own blood started flowing down her face freely.
They stood there for a moment, measuring each other. Any kind of wound inflicted would be the start of a cascading effect that would end, inevitably, in their opponent’s downfall. Or, at least, that was how it looked to Zeph.
Lucas’s armor was already cracked in places, speaking volumes about its nonexistent defensive properties, while Kwan didn’t have any on her form at all. What she was left with resembled a skimpy sportswear, all in gray and red. She wasn’t allowed to even keep her footwear.
Kwan moved first. Before running forward, she started swinging the cleaver in a pattern, making sweeping arcs that allowed her to chain her movements. The distance was short, so in no time Lucas found himself in the reach of her weapon.
The swings were fast but seemingly didn’t pose much of a challenge for him. Yet, he was still wary of the enchantments placed on the weapon, making sure to never hit it directly or stay too close to it.
As Kwan was trying to catch him with increasingly complex movements, Lucas was retaliating in the short windows of opportunity she left him with.
Soon enough, Kwan’s joints were marked by lacerations and small punctures – her skin and flesh resilient enough to withstand the barrage of weak attacks, but the damage was accumulating.
After continuing this dance for a minute, they separated, jumping back as if on signal.
It was becoming clear what their respectful melee specializations were. Lucas was a fencing master, while Kwan possessed inhuman strength and resilience.
But Zeph still couldn’t puzzle their preferred Magicule groups and contaminations. Obviously, both should be in possession of contamination and internal strengthening Skills. Lucas even showed some of them at the beginning, trying to end the Duel in an instant by activating a multitude of Skills at the time, but he hadn’t shown the same speed again.
They were paired well, Zeph came to a realization, analyzing what he had just seen. On Earth, an exchange that long could be possible only when using non-lethal weapons or when one side played with their opponent, allowing for a prolonged match.
Zeph knew from experience that one-on-one melee fights ended quickly. But those two fighters seemed like the best and worst pairing ever created. The best because their fight would appease the violence-hungry audience. The worst because they were countering their strengths almost perfectly.
Maybe that’s the reason Lucas was used by the Landlords… he mused, understanding that the political game was rooted much deeper than what they saw.
This time, Lucas moved first. The red haze surrounding him changed colors, darkening into violet, as he spread his legs and reversed the grip on his stiletto. Kwan frowned and straightened. Her oversized cleaver slowly changed color to an opaque gray, starting near the grip. She, again, put it above her head.
“Ugh… that… won’t end well,” Aisha said with a grimace.
Zeph barely managed to catch her facial expression before Lucas executed a thrust. An unknown force seemed to pull him forward, making the movement extremely fast and blurring his form.
Even before Kwan started to move her weapon in an arc, she turned sideways to dodge and… accompanied by a spray of blood, her right arm separated from her body, flailing in the air as the hand was still tightly gripping the weapon’s hilt.
Lucas stopped three meters behind her back as she screamed while finishing the swing with her one good hand, turning one-eighty on her feet. He was already facing her when a wave of disturbed air erupted from the cleaver right in his direction.
Bending backward impossibly, he dodged the projection with a big margin; his head almost touched the ground in the process.
But Kwan wasn’t finished. Still screaming, she wheeled her weapon, dislodging the severed appendage and executing a surprisingly fast downward cut.
Lucas was forced to jump to the side, not able to recover from the dodge and regain his footing fully.
His body was spinning in midair as Kwan’s weapon abruptly stopped right beside his form, releasing another wave of electric arcs.
It was as if the cleaver lost all its weight and inertia. One moment, it was following the angled downward swing, and the next it was suspended in the air—Kwan’s forward momentum not influenced at all—then rotated swiftly with a flip of her wrist.
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With an awkward but extremely fast side swing, almost losing her balance, she clipped her opponent.
The cut ran deep, almost severing the man’s leg at the thigh. As Kwan stumbled to a stop, it was Lucas’s turn to scream as he crashed and rolled on the ground, unable to reorient himself in time.
Aisha sighed with relief. “Not the worst outcome…”
Before Zeph could even start guessing what she meant, Kwan was back to hacking at the poor man. The weapon in her hand looked like a lightweight imitation instead of a heavy, metal tool that it was. She was swinging it with her one good arm effortlessly and way faster than before.
Despite his best efforts at defending while lying on his back, Lucas was quickly overwhelmed by the barrage of attacks. He paired, deflected, and squirmed, but it was all for naught.
It didn’t seem like the weapon was as weightless from his perspective and Kwan’s attacks became quicker and quicker with every second.
It took eight swings. Eight swings to finish the Duel. In a gore display, Lucas’s head was broken apart.
Immediately, Gru reported that two big, juicy Soul fragments landed on his lap.
None was expected. Zeph never assumed the man could have any strong connection to his existence, but it seemed he was wrong.
Planning an assassination attempt notwithstanding, they never met in person.
The second Soul fragment was addressed to the man’s family, but Gru easily snatched it after the connection was uncovered.
Yet, the show wasn’t over. Kwan didn’t stop. For another half a minute, she continued to hack and slash in the accompaniment of multicolored lights and loud announcements.
In the silence that soon filled the room, she continued to mince and crush the unresponsive body of the fallen foe in her frenzy. Her bloody, grotesque smile engraved itself vividly into the memory of all who watched as she refused to stop.
Zeph glanced at Aisha, doubts reflected in his eyes.
She was stoic, almost relaxed. As if whatever just happened wasn’t unsettling at all.
“Not good… La-Gewong’s Class was exposed,” Arhen’s voice broke his reverie.
Exposed? Like.. his scattered thoughts condensed suddenly as his brain found a known pattern. Is she a berserker?! flashed through his mind as he turned to the Hannyajin.
“Wait until tomorrow before judging,” Aisha said calmly, preventing him from voicing his question. “Pavail?” She turned to the woman.
That seemed to wake his coworker from her daze. “Yezzz—es…” She cleared her throat. “Yes?”
“Prepare for appendage framework reconstruction,” Aisha said without emotion. “And no, we aren’t going to use the stadium’s Doctors.”
“But—”
“No buts,” Aisha interjected aggressively. “Kwan will give the same order. I just want you to start preparing, nothing else.”
Pavail lowered her head. After a moment she stood up and walked up the stairs.
“Arhen, what was that about her Class?” Zeph asked, using the awkward silence in the room to his advantage.
“Don’t ask him that!” Aisha exclaimed; irritation written all over her face. “Kwan’s Class is not to be discussed. Under any circumstances. She already showed too much… I just hope it was worth it.”
He closed his mouth, understanding what this was about.
Kwan was the focus point of this Duel Tournament. Her fights were bearing the most weight. And in the future, it was best if their opposition didn’t have a clue. It was better if he didn’t know.
The stadium records would become public at some point, but that was years ahead.
A few minutes later, Kwan entered the room, holding her severed arm in her good hand. Her equipment was quickly brought and stowed to the side by attendants. Her wound, unsurprisingly, wasn’t bleeding anymore. Between the Regeneration milestone enhancement and the Doctors populating this facility, she was in no danger of losing too much blood. Especially because the fight didn’t last long.
“I’ve won,” she declared with a tired sigh. “My Landlord’s title is secured.”
That made everyone pause. The stakes were much more impactful than anyone expected.
Ignoring the sudden stillness, she walked to the operation table on the side and sat down heavily.
Wordlessly, everyone stood up and walked up the stairs, finding a seat near her.
Below, in the arena, champions were preparing for the blood fest, but they ignored it altogether. Those fights weren’t as important anymore.
There were no congratulations nor cheers. Their group just wanted to be closer physically, to show their appreciation, worry, and support. An unspoken agreement; an instinctual action.
Regenerating a whole limb wasn’t an easy task without dedicated body enhancement or PE prerequisites. The latter being available only for people that over-specialized or reached a high enough level.
As Aisha predicted, Kwan declined the stadium’s medical team offer even before returning to the room. She instructed Pavail to do her job instead and the woman immediately started working on the severed arm, removing unnecessary tissue, like fat and muscles.
Differently from the practices on Earth, people on Corora wanted a full restoration of lost body parts. Stitching the appendage back would never result in the same functionality, mostly because of the lacking precision when connecting ligaments and nerves. The Regeneration wasn’t able to realign those completely because it wasn’t working with enough precision and speed on lower values. Also, the current structure of a body was being actively recorded by the Soul – which was the source of information for Regeneration – so preservation of correct data took precedence.
As a result, even after a lengthy rehabilitation, people would never achieve the same proficiency and freedom of movement after the limb was reattached. If a Doctor wasn’t able to stir their Regeneration in the right way, the cripples would visit the System Shrine for restoration or replacement, depending on their Universal Points funds.
Willforce Morphon was the only reason that Zeph’s arm wasn’t amputated. The medical team knew that he had a body enhancement regulating Regeneration. They knew it should be enough to straighten up any mistakes made. He would regrow his arm, either way, given enough time.
In Kwan’s case, though, the procedure was more tedious. With the Hannyajin’s inherent PE physical prowess, Pavail had to merely secure the framework of the arm and attach it to the stump, the soft tissue would grow back with time, good as new. The most important thing was to not rewrite the information in the Soul, but also to direct the Regeneration, so using the most structurally stable parts like skin, bones, major blood vessels, cartilage, and membranes was a priority. The muscles, smaller blood vessels, nerves, and other kinds of cells would follow what was recognized – as long as the Soul possessed necessary referential materials.
The situation would be much worse if Kwan lost both her arms. Symmetry was kind of inbuilt into the DNA and bodily structure of most organisms, after all, which was kind of mirrored in the Soul. Not that people on Corora planet's surface understood what the DNA was.
The framework re-growing was possible for the Hannyajins only. Humans had it worse, supposedly, as the information on their body structure wasn’t as rigid in their Souls. Regenerating a limb from almost a scratch wasn’t for them. A good surgeon could reattach a lost limb. It wouldn’t end up as functional as their original one, but it was an option for poor people anyway.
PE could only magnify what already existed, so people were accustomed to having their bodies fully functional.
Also, there was a hidden assumption that a lost body part would stay intact in the first place. Nobody can attach atomized or otherwise mangled flesh. Not to mention, this body part can’t stay outside of the Veil for too long if it is to be attached back easily. After severing their connection with the Mana, Soul, and Will (in that order) a severed limb is as good as a foreign body part with compatible cells. The Veil was playing a major role in that case, sustaining the connection with the Soul. Of course, the Will took part in all of that, but it wasn’t a measurable resource. Zeph had his own theories, some confirmed, some not, but Corora’s population wasn’t able to even test them.
After Kwan’s missing arm was… secured in place—for the lack of a better word—Pavail started to apply bandages and a metal framework not dissimilar to Zeph’s own. The stadium Doctors and personnel weren’t present, but a few more people from Kwan’s gang arrived to help with the operation, bringing necessary accessories with them.
The operation finished without a hitch. Their group even helped somewhat with the proceedings – especially Ghrughah with his metal manipulation at the last stage.
After Kwan stopped frowning from pain—the matches still playing in the background behind them—she looked at the gathered people. They were sitting on the nearby benches, looking back at her. Only Ghrughah, Pavail, and P’pfel were staying near the patient.
“You good?” Aisha asked in a warm voice.
“Yes… I think I am,” she said stoically, shaking her head.
“Our champions are dominating the Tournament,” Arhen said from the side.
“That’s no longer relevant,” Kwan said, slowly sitting up. Her… eviscerated arm was affixed to her torso.
“What did you win?” Ghrughah asked, frowning.
“Everything,” she said, a small smile blossoming on her bloody face. “His land, his contacts, his authority… his title and organization… I won everything.”
The stunned silence that ensued was disturbed only by the loud laughter of Aisha.