Chapter 33 - Friendly Fire

"Let's head outside," Guen said walking towards the exit.

I was getting excited.

I knew Guen was strong, but I had grown a ton myself. At the very least, I would put up a great fight, though in my mind, losing was not an option.

All three of us, Guen, Wrel, and I, walked outside of the Peacemakers' guild and went to the yard outside, the place which was usually occupied by Sanor doing his training. Though he was not here today. He went on the expedition with the others.

I went on one side, close to a big tree with a thick bark that someone had carved the word 'Peacemakers' on, while someone else carved the word 'suck' underneath.

Guen went on the other side. There was no tree to write silly things there, but this did not stop them from carving it on the fucking ground.

We were standing apart, but there were still a few things that were unclear. When should we start fighting? What is allowed and what is not? Do we have an arena or something we need to stay inside? I gave Guen a puzzled look.

"So, do we make a circl—"

I was not able to complete my question because Guen had already come at me with a small knife I did not know where she was hiding and went straight for my head, barely missing as I ducked at the last second, making her stab the tree instead.

She gave me a knee right to the face, which made me fall to the ground.

"We are fighting here, there are no rules and circles... idiot," she said.

She was right, there are no rules in a real fight. My enemy would not wait for me to make a proper circle around us or draw my weapon. So why would she?

I got up and, while she was getting her knife unstuck, I managed to go at her and hit her at the side of her stomach with the bottom of Illuminator's hilt. She let out a groan and fell to the side, but she managed to get her knife out of the tree after all. I was not fast enough.

She jumped back and created some distance between us. She bit her knife with her teeth and clasped her hands. I knew what was coming. I needed to act fast.

I started running towards her as fast as I could. My hands on Illuminator, ready to swing.

I could not reach her on time. A blue, thunderous bird started forming over her fingers and once it was complete, it blasted towards me.

"[Gale Slash]!"

I tried to slash the bird in half, but with no success. It passed right through my sword and crashed into my chest, zapping my entire body.

The electric sparks that ran through my body paralyzed me. It was hurting and burning and I was on the ground, spazzing.

It only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like minute after minute passed with the electricity still flowing through my body.

I used Illuminator, pierced the ground to help me get up. I was struggling to do so by myself.

"So? should we call it quits? Or do you want more of this?" Guen asked.

"Pfft. This was nothing," I said. "I could easily take fifty more of those."

Guen chuckled.

"I should have expected that. You are an idiot, after all."

She clasped her hands once more, getting ready to send another thunder my way.

The delay between her clasping her hands and the magical bird appearing over them was too small for me to close the distance. Thankfully, I was able to dodge to the side as it kept going forward.

I reached Guen and was right in front of her, but instead of striking her with Illuminator or kicking her, I jumped high in the air.

Guen did the same. She had to do the same. Behind me, the bird had turned around and was coming towards my back. I did not have time to strike Guen without getting hit by it and had to jump to avoid it. Guen then had to jump so she did not get his by her own bird either.

But I jumped first. This gave me the high ground. Or the high sky, I guess, which allowed me to hit her on the head and send her back down where she came from. She almost got hit by the bird, which barely missed her and kept going until it hit a neighboring building's wall, making a big dent on it.

"Maybe you are not so dumb after all," she said as she got back up, a few strings of blood decorating her otherwise white face.

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"Thanks!" I said as I landed right in front of her. She jumped back, making me miss the strike I was trying to land on the way down.

Just as I landed on the ground, I felt an excruciating pain on my left foot.

"Just kidding. Still an idiot," Guen said.

Before jumping back, Guen placed her knife on the ground. Pushed it against the soil to make it stay standing up, right under where I was a bout to land. I did not see it and, even if I did, I had no way to stop myself from landing. I stepped right on the knife with all the force of my fall. It pierced through my foot and kept going until it pierced all the way through the other side.

My right leg was almost useless now and I could not move it without hurting like hell. This made me significantly slower, which was a huge disadvantage. Especially for me, who was basing my whole fighting style on my speed and mobility.

I needed to find another way to fight and still come out on top. A mere stab was far from enough to stop me.

Guen, looking at me with a huge smirk on her face, clasped her hands once again, to give her signature move another try.

I had to stop her. If she managed to generate another one of those birds, I would be done for. But I was not fast enough to reach her even if my foot was fine, let alone now that it had been fucking skewered by a knife.

Thankfully, I could use something that was faster than me. Swords.

"This is happening a bit more often than any of us would like, isn't it?" I said to Illuminator before lifting it up and throwing it towards Guen using [Item Throw].

It was never going to hit her unless her brain suddenly stopped working, but it was enough to disturb her and prevent her from casting her spell. She easily dodged to the side as my sword flew past her and got stuck on the neighboring building, right were Guen's previous bird had created the dent.

Even in my current, much slower state, I was still fast for the average person, thanks to my high Agility stat, but I still shouldn't be able to close the distance between me and Guen so easily as her Agility was not far from mine. But, while I was trying to force a close range fight, I noticed that Guen was now panting.

Missing my sword, I was at a disadvantage, but it was still better than fighting from a distance as I did not have a way to actually fight while she would be able to generate more birds.

I tried to throw punches, which she dodged and parried with relative ease. I tried kicks, which was a terrible idea and I even tried the weird fighting style that Sanor was using yesterday, which was an even worse idea than the kicks and resulted in me hurting myself without Guen needing to do anything.

She landed a knee to my stomach in the meantime as I was already falling down, which made things even worse, and then went back and regained distance for one final thunderbird.

I got back up with the help of the tree that was next to me. I leaned on it so that I did not have to put all my weight on my legs.

I was standing there, leaning against the tree, searching left and right for a way to defeat Guen, who was getting ready for her final attack.

Was it over? Was the battle already lost?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

Maybe I was looking for an answer at the wrong place. Instead of left and right, the answer seemed to be up.

The ol' reliable, huh?

I lifted up my hand, grabbed one of the tree's branches and broke it, making a weapon similar to the one I was using during my days in the [Tiny Forest].

Now my only issue was getting to Guen. I could not throw it like I did with Illuminator because that would only delay things. There was no way I could hit her like that.

If I tried to close the distance, the pain would be immense due to my impaled foot. But if I stayed where I was, the pain would be equally bad, this time coming from Guen's magic.

It would hurt anyway.

So I decided to go with the pain that would give me the most chances at winning this fight.

I bit the pain and ran as fast as I could towards Guen. Wooden stick firmly in my hands like a lethal weapon. One word in my mind: win.

As I was running, the pain was getting more and more intense, but I was not going to stop. Not before beating the damn Elf.

"[Gale Slash]!!"

Guen unclasped her hands while trying to dodge my strike. She leaned back and the wooden sword passed mere inches away from her face.

I swinged the branch with such force that it made me jump in the air in the process.

But I still missed. My best move. My best chance at landing a fight-ending strike was easily dodged. I was dissapointed. But more than that, I was mad. I was manic.

A red aura burst out of me, furiously dancing around me like I was engulfed by flames. My hair spiked up like there was a force pulling them. My grip tightened.

I landed back on the ground. I ignored the pain and wasted no time.

Strike to the left!

Strike to the right!

Left!

Right!

Left!

Right!

Up!

Up!

Right!

A barrage of attacks was going Guen's way who was only holding a small knife and was not able to block all of them, nor dodge them. Not when they were coming with such speed.

A strike upwards hit her wrist and made her knife fly up in the air. She was now completely vulnerable and I was now landing every single hit.

Since she could not dodge them, she tried to block them with her forearms, but the hits still landed. It only gave her more pain.

Eventually, she was not able to keep getting hit by the branch. She lost her balance and fell down.

I stepped on her chest and put the wooden branch on her neck.

"It's over. I win," I said.

"Pfft. You get this one... idiot," she replied.

I did it! I Finally did it!

The red aura around me slowly faded aways. My eyes closed and I passed out. I fell face-first on the ground, next to Guen.

We were lucky Wrel was there because we were both wrecked and needed all the help we could get at that point. She pulled the knife out of my foot—thankfully while I was still passed out, so I did not feel a thing—and gave both of us a healing potion so that our more serious wounds would heal.

Guen and Wrel walked back inside. None of them felt like carrying me so they left me outside until I woke up a couple of hours later, picked up Illuminator from the neighbor's walls, I sincerely apologized to them for all the damages and then went into the Peacemakers' guild to find the other two.

They were just sitting there, in a corner, having ale and meat crackers, chit chatting like they were a couple of aunts having their monthly recap.

"Hey!" I yelled. "Why did you leave me there!?"

They turned and gave me a weird look, like I was crazy.

"What do you mean?" they both said.

"I could have been robbed! Murdered! Illuminator could have been stolen!"

"Relax," Wrel said. "You are inside the City of Prosper. None of these is going to happen."

"Yeah, you're probably right," I agreed and sat down to talk to them like a third aunt that was late for their gathering.

After a few relaxing minutes of sitting down and talking with my friends acquaintances, it was now time to leave.

"Alright, talking with you was fun, beating you..." I pointed at Guen, "...was very fun, but now I have to leave; there is a mountain waiting for me." I went ahead and grabbed the mission paper from the bulletin board.

"Wait, idiot!" Guen said, but the door behind me had already closed and I was gone.