The troll of questionable troll content charges at his opponent, Roland the Wall. His huge leaps make his enemy not so distant at all. Jom lets out an earth-rumbling roar as he swings his handmade club at Roland.
Bang!
Like a spring, Roland's form gets compressed, then pops back up when Jom pulls his club off his shield. Angered that his opponent is still not flattened into a pancake or sent flying across the arena, he roars again and slams his club down on Roland again.
Bang!
The show of force seems to please the audience greatly, as they begin cheering and clapping for both Jom and Roland. A considerable amount of dust gets knocked away by the shock waves from the impacts, and Roland buckles under each hit to his shield, but remains springy and standing tall nonetheless.
Bang! Bang! Bang Bang! Bang!
Jom neither making any advances, nor Roland making any concessions, both of the warriors are locked in a test of endurance and might. Jom keeps swinging his club and slamming it into the shield fruitlessly, and Roland doesn't budge in response.
Bang! Bang! Bang Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang Bang! Bang!
「This is it, huh? Just strength versus strength?」
Straf sighs with his arms crossed.
「Well… I thought it might turn out to be… This.」
Cycelia shrugs, also bored by the repetitive banging on the shield. The crowd seems to love it, however, growing apparently more fervent with each bang.
Bang! Bang! Bang Bang!
「Why don't you tell me something interesting, then? Something about your family, or the world, or something. I don't know, it seems like they'll be-」
Bang! Bang! Bang!
「Yeah. At it for hours.」
Straf completes the sentence, previously interrupted by Jom pummeling the shield some more. Cycelia looks at Straf, blinking.
「What would you like to know?」
She inquisitively tilts her head.
Bang! Bang!
「How about the monsters then? What's on top?」
Straf looks away from the drumming duo, and looks at Cycelia with raised brows. She puts a finger to the side of her lip and looks aside, thinking.
「Hmmm… Obviously dragons are pretty powerful, but I think you know that already. It really depends on many factors. A kraken is not going to be as dangerous on land as it will be when you're on a boat. There's also some beasts and creatures that are really weak by themselves, but in large groups, they'll be a problem to just about anyone. Goblins, for example.」
Cycelia says, thinking intensely.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jom is still banging away, trying to mix things up by circling around his opponent. It doesn't work, as Roland is still pointing his shield at him.
「There's krakens? Son of a bitch. Ought to hunt me one.」
Straf exclaims in disbelief, and Cycelia giggles in response.
「Straf, if you manage to kill a kraken while I'm on the throne, I'll make sure you have more gold than you know what to do with it.」
She smiles, covering her mouth with a loose fist after Straf's ridiculous statement.
「That's already kind of the case, but more can't hurt.」
Straf shrugs.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
「There's also magical beasts and some really unusual ones. Chimeric monsters are really rare and can be really dangerous. Dream-eaters, vampires… Demons, of course. All of them have different reasons for why they're dangerous. It's not just this one is king, and this one is weak kind of hierarchy.」
「So what's the one you would absolutely not want to meet?」
「Well… I'd hope dragons would look kindly on my dragon heritage. It's hard to say… Mind-hopper, perhaps?」
She rubs her lips with her thumb as she thinks, then tilts her head as she replies.
「Huh? Does it do what I think it does?」
Straf's brows furrow at the monster's name.
Bang!
「If you think it steals minds, you'd be correct. Luckily they're very, very rare. There hasn't been one in the kingdom for over a hundred years. They're still occasionally found in the swamplands to the south-west. It's not as dangerous, as I think it's pretty terrifying.」
Bang! Bang!
「Why? If they can just straight up pretty much functionally kill somebody, that sounds dangerous to me.」
Straf questions Cycelia, and she shakes her head.
「There's ways to get the mind-hoppers back to their own body. And most adults have a mind too resistant to be affected. Children, drunks, the melancholics, and the infirm are at biggest risk. There's stories how the peasants' children would go out to play, and they'd come back different. Or, how a village madman would wander off into a forest, and return cured, or some such.」
Cycelia explains, then looks at her lap and taps her fingers together.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
「Man, that's really getting fucking annoying… Go on.」
Straf scowls at Jom and his opponent as they still are deadlocked in battle.
「…Apparently everyone who was rescued from a mind-hopper's grasp said, that they could still see, hear, feel and think. It's just that their body was acting on its own, and they could only observe. I think that's really scary, to not have control over yourself, and nobody knows that you don't. It's not dangerous, but…」
She shrugs her shoulders, and looks at Straf, seeking acknowledgement. He shrugs as well.
「I guess I can understand that. What I can't understand is why is anybody cheering on these boring fucking chumps. Seriously? A shield? That's it?」
Straf points his palm at Jom at Roland. The audience cheers as he hits the shield with the club. Again.
Bang!
「…Is there anything you are afraid of, Straf?」
Cycelia asks meekly. Straf nods.
「Black holes.」
「Huh?」
「And gas giants, I guess.」
He adds, and shrugs.
「…Huh?」
She tilts her head, and looks down at the giants below for some clarity. She finds none.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
「I guess a giant made of gas could be scary… By black holes you mean like, chasms?」
「…Yeah. You can think of it as a chasm with a slope around it. If you lose your footing, you'll start sliding into it, and you can never catch yourself.」
Straf rubs his chin for a moment, then explains.
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「Ah… When you put it that way, I see. That is unsettling.」
Cycelia nods as she begins to grasp a gross misrepresentation of the complex celestial objects.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
「Man, how long is this going to take!? I took out Whoever the Whatever in under one minute!」
Straf throws his hands up in frustration.
「Cobalt the Contractor? That's because it wasn't an entirely fair match-up, Straf. You're just that strong…」
「Yeah, I know. I told them.」
Straf shakes his head and sighs.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
「Honestly, it should have been those two guys versus me. At the same time.」
Straf makes another outrageous comment, and Cycelia covers her mouth as she starts giggling with closed eyes.
「Why are you laughing? I'm serious. If I'd give that Roland guy a good thwack, it'd probably be a ring-out.」
Straf asks, and Cycelia waves her hand, only laughing harder. Her chest bounces up and down as she tries to restrain herself.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
「Ahaha… Ha… Straf, don't make me picture that. You'd kill half the audience from shock.」
Cycelia sighs, and wipes a singular tear from her eye with her finger when she finally puts her laughter under control.
「So what about your family, then? Start with that Richard guy.」
「Very well. As you know, my family traces back to the dragon Redwing. His wife was a witch who was exiled from the land that was rightfully hers- I'll just get to the point. Richard inherited all the magical knowledge from the witch, as it was passed down generation by generation.」
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
「And then one day he thought it'd be a good idea to invite demons over for a party?」
Straf smirks sardonically.
「…Like I said Straf. Unkind times. There were terrible things happening, and nobody knew how to stop them. He researched the theory of mirror worlds, and actually applied them. There is a massive mana cost involved in opening a gateway to another world, even for a split second. Moreover, the demons had no reason to cross over to our world, where they would be forced to burn away their vital energy just to stay here.」
Bang!
「So he baited them with dirty peasants' souls?」
Straf asks, and Cycelia nods.
「…Yes. If the demon received the souls for free, he could rampage endlessly and prove worse than the demon lord, so Richard made the contract and the soul lockbox a part of the summoning spell. Any demon can cross, but they must follow the rules, or they will be at a loss. Naturally, a lot of them bend the rules. It's not an ideal solution.」
「So why use it?」
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
「We didn't. At least, nobody from my family did. Richard ordered his son to lock away the spell's secrets and keep them guarded, in case it's ever needed, but also forbid him from using it if not necessary. We are continuing his will ever since… We did, at least. Count Bellatis murdered my family, and it seems he got his grubby paws on the grimoire.」
Cycelia sighs, and her shoulders slump.
Bang! Bang!
「So is your family history just demon-summoning and wars? Or were there times of peace?」
「No, of course not!」
Cycelia shakes her head and looks Straf in the eyes.
「Wow. Not even a day of peace, huh?」
「Straf! Of course there was peace! When the calamities ended, things were really peaceful right up to now!」
Cycelia pouts and crosses her arms. Straf rolls his eyes.
「Relax. I was only half-joking. So your grandfather didn't do much, huh?」
Straf asks, and Cycelia's pout softens.
Bang!
「No, not really. He was a good ruler, he somehow knew how to manage both the nobles and the commoners. Everyone loved him, and he was kind to me as well. He saw how much I liked knights, swords, and fighting techniques…」
Bang! Bang! Bang!
《Okay, yeah, and then I broke his sword. I can already see where this is heading.》
Straf thinks…
「What about your father?」
…And handily deflects.
「My father? Ah. Well… He inherited the throne at a really bad time. He was really hated for a long time, but the commoners never knew the truth. I think he was a good ruler, and I know he was a kind man. The choices he had to make weighed heavily on him.」
Cycelia looks at her feet, sullen and frowning.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
「You had a brother, didn't you? What'd he do?」
Straf notices Cycelia getting sulky, and changes the topic to her sibling.
「Ah, Otto. I was the crown princess due to the succession laws, but it really was Otto who should have been the one to take the throne. I think he'd make a great king. He once made an off-hand comment that helped my father deal with coin clippers.」
She smiles as she talks about her brother, although there is a tinge of sadness behind Cycelia's emerald eyes.
Bang!
「It wasn't something about expulsions, was it?」
「Huh? No, it's because of Otto, that the coins now have Otto ridges.」
She says proudly, with her index finger extended.
「...Otto ridges?」
Straf asks, squinting in confusion. Cycelia pulls out a gold coin and points to its edge.
Bang!
「See these little ridges on the edge? That's Otto ridges. He said it would be hard to tamper with coins if they had a pattern like this on the edge. Isn't that clever!?」
She explains with a smile. Straf stares at her with an expression of incredulity.
《Of course the magic nerd would do a politically correct Newton.》
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang- Crrrack!
「Oh.」
Straf and Cycelia look down below at the arena. A half of Jom's club is sailing through the air and spinning rapidly. Puzzled, Jom looks at the shattered stump remaining in his hands.
「Oh. His fucking club broke. Sucks, doesn't it!? To have the durability just fucking run out!?」
Straf shouts at Jom, and Roland wastes no time at all. He cocks his shield back, and rams its edge into Jom's face. Jom recoils and staggers backwards. Roland refuses to relent.
「Ladies and gentlemen! Jom's weapon just broke! After long, unceasing, merciless assault-」
Thud!
「And there it is! At least that's what's left of it!」
The announcer points to the cracked and shattered hunk of wood that just landed, and lodged itself in the dirt by force and mass alone.
Clang! Clang!
Dull, meaty impacts echo out as Roland keeps ramming the edge of his massive shield into Jom's face, now surprisingly on the offensive. The disarmed giant has nothing to defend himself with from the steel colossus, and simply takes a hit after a hit to his unprotected face.
Clang! Thud!
Jom takes another hit, and his head snaps back. He falls over onto his back, and the whole arena rumbles. Roland steps on his enemy's chest and lifts his shield up to deliver another hit, then pauses. His enemy is still, and Roland is towering over him.
Gonnnnnnnnggggg…
Somebody bangs for the last time. The gong echoes across the arena, signaling the definitive end of the repetitive banging. Healers run in and begin healing the unconscious giant, and Roland walks out with his armored fist raised. The audience cheers as he exits.
「Ladies and gentlemen! What a show of strength and endurance! Roland the Wall moves onto the semi-finals, where he will face Straf Katastrof Vindict! Who would have thought Trollborn Jom's weapon will give up before either of them did!?」
Straf perks up. The announcer reveals the upcoming match ahead of time, and the entire arena breaks out into a minute-long cacophony of whistles, cheering, and clapping.
「Wow. Really? Watch me, Lia. I'm gonna do it.」
「No, don't!」
Cycelia covers her mouth again, laughing…