“Say, how about you exchange a few blows with my friend Victor here?” Nicholas said, grabbing the back of the neck of the man with the yellowed teeth who had spoken earlier, and he had a malicious smile on his face, hearing his boss’ words. “He’s in need of some practice and he’s only three levels higher than you; surely that won’t be a problem for someone as capable as you, right?”
“Nicholas, what are doing?” Aysha asked angrily. But Lucas tapped her on the shoulder, trying to remind her that she shouldn’t antagonize him; they still needed him for the next steps of their plan. She seemed to understand what he was trying to say, but she still held a bitter expression on her face.
“It’s just a friendly bout, nothing more,” he explained. “Unless Lucas doesn’t feel confident, and in that case, I apologize,” he had a mocking expression on his face when he said that.
“It’s okay, we can fight… but I don’t have a weapon at the moment, mine broke a couple of days ago, and I hadn’t been able to replace it yet,” Lucas said, shrugging. His words were followed by the mocking laughter of all Nicholas followers, and he felt Aysha’s eyes staring at him, but he didn’t return the look.
“Poor beggar, don’t have a single coin to spare,” one of them said, with the others laughing around.
“Quiet!” Nicholas yelled to them again, and they quieted down. “Not having money isn’t something to be embarrassed about. What matters is the confidence and courage to face challenges, and Lucas has plenty of that,” He then turned to Lucas with a smile. “If you don’t have a weapon, I can give you one of mine. That’s not a problem. What weapon do you use?”
“Sword,” Lucas replied, and right after, Nicholas provided him with a sword that seemed quite expensive.
Novice Warrior Sword
Sword made from the finest steel, ideal for combat. +10 Strength
Required level to use: 10
Since Lucas was capped out on added points from equipment, this plus ten in strength would be wasted, but he didn’t mind.
“Thank you for your kindness,” Lucas said, sounding really grateful. “So, where should we do this?”
“I know a place close by that is private enough, follow me,” Nicholas said.
After a few minutes, they arrived at a place that looked like an abandoned park, there was no more grass on the ground, only dirt, and Nicholas was right, there was no one on the surrounding area. After arriving, Lucas faced his opponent, who had a confident smile on his face.
“You seem pretty confident,” Lucas said to the man casually.
“You bet I am. I’m gonna show you the distance between us today,” he spat.
“Actually, now that you mentioned it, the difference in our levels seems a little unfair. I mean, I am at a clear disadvantage here, what do I gain out of this?” Lucas asked, looking at Nicholas. He captured a look of rage on his face for a second before he was able to hide it.
“What are you talking about? Are you trying to back out now?” Victor yelled at him, furious.
“Surely, you’re not going to go back on your word now, are you? That would be a bad look in front of Aysha,” Nicholas said, looking towards her, who had a weird expression on her face but said nothing.
“No, I definitely don’t want to do that, not after we’ve come all the way over here.”
“Good…”
“However, I believe that I should have some sort of compensation if I’m able to win this bout, since the disparities are so high. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s worth risking getting an injury over this,” he shrugged. This time Lucas could almost feel the anger coming from Nicholas, he guessed the guy wasn’t used to people saying no to him, but he calmed down quickly after.
I shouldn’t be angry over this, there’s no way this idiot can defeat Victor, he’s three levels above him, and I’m sure he isn’t even in the top fifty of the scoreboards. Besides, he didn’t even have a sword a few minutes ago, how good can he be? Actually, maybe I can use this to my advantage… Nicholas had an idea.
“You are right; it’s only fair we offer something in return, but if we are making bets, you should offer something too,” Nicholas said, with an insidious undertone.
“That will be hard… I don’t have much money,” he answered, and again he could feel Aysha’s eyes on his back.
“I understand. That’s not a problem, let’s just agree that if you lose, you’ll stay away from Aysha,” Nicholas said, which elicited a protesting sound from Aysha that she couldn’t hold back.
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“That’s a pretty weird request,” Lucas said with a frown. “And it’s not up to me to decide who she hangs out with.”
“I only ask you this thinking about her best interest. If you are not capable of winning against someone only three levels ahead of you, you simply don’t deserve to walk by her side,” he said.
This time, Lucas could feel Aysha’s anger emanating, even if she didn’t say a word. She was no longer a princess and wanted to have all the freedom she was entitled to, so to hear someone else say who she could or couldn’t keep as company must have been truly revolting. But she didn’t want to mess up Lucas’ plan, so she only clenched her fists tight and remained silent.
“Hmm,” Lucas seemed to think. “That’s a pretty big ask, but I guess you’re adamant on it?”
“Yes, I won’t budge on this matter. If you want your bet, you’ll have to agree to the terms.” Nicholas said, holding back a smile. That idiot would fall right into his trap, this way he could humiliate him and keep him away from Aysha in one single move.
Lucas pretended to think for a while. “All right, but I’ll want a hundred thousand coins if I win. I guess for someone rich like you, this isn’t such a high amount, right?” Lucas asked, doing his best to keep a straight face at Nicholas reaction.
“Are you crazy, you st—” Before one of Nicholas’ supporters could finish his cursing, Nicholas himself intervened.
“No, not at all. A hundred thousand coins it is,” he said, as if it were no big deal, but the truth was that it was half of his current savings.
He had achieved that through a lot of hard quests, and mostly through kissing George Hastings’ ass, which was, surprisingly, even harder than the quests because the guy was a prick. He always made him stay up late, drink with him, and torturing a few of his servants; that was one of his favorite things to do.
Nicholas straight up hated the guy, but he knew that to grow in this world, you needed money, and a sponsor was the best way to achieve that. When he first arrived in this world, he thought that his abilities as a semi-professional fencing athlete would help him a lot along the way, and it did, in the beginning. But when he arrived in the city and everyone got their classes, everything changed. Soon, he saw that he would fall behind others if he didn’t do anything to step up. That was when he met George.
At first, it was just a regular acquaintance. His parents had taught him that it was always good to maintain good relations with figures of power, and that’s what he did. But when George started giving him money and asking him to do his dirty work, he couldn’t refuse. That’s the opportunity he was looking for to rise above others, and he took it. So he felt slightly uneasy with Lucas’ request; after all, that was a lot of money that he had worked hard for, but looking at Victor, he saw that he had no reason to doubt. He had seen him fighting plenty of times before, and he was pretty good with the sword. Besides, three levels was a huge difference in strength.
Lucas grinned upon hearing his acceptance. “Let’s begin then,” he said, entering a fighting posture with the sword, his only class with it proving its worth.
“All right, but I’ll warn you now that I take no responsibility if I cut a limb or two. My hands get slippery sometimes,” Victor said with an evil sneer.
Lucas didn’t reply. Instead, he parried the attack that came soon after, taking a step back. He did the same to the three following attacks that came from all sides until Victor finally stopped his advances.
“I was just testing you this time,” Victor grinned, and Lucas remained silent. “Your technique is clearly inferior to mine. I guess you haven’t used the sword for that long.”
Lucas nodded in response. “Actually, my main weapon used to be the axe.”
“I see. Then today I’ll show you the difference between real swordsmanship and waving an axe around,” he said, leaping towards Lucas once again.
Victor had been following Nicholas since their days back on Earth. He also used to practice fencing, but he always lost to Nicholas when they fought against each other, gradually turning his previous sense of rivalry into one of admiration. When they were transported to this foreign planet, this feeling only increased, as Nicholas always seem to know what he was doing and had raised their group single-handedly thanks to his financial aid and advice, earning him the title of their boss.
Everyone in their group was aware that Nicholas liked Aysha. So when he saw that man disrespect their boss like that by being so close to her, he knew he should put him in his place. And that opportunity was cunningly created for him by his boss. Today, he would completely outclass this Lucas guy, and maybe even kill him if he had the chance. He was sure that Nicholas would be grateful, even if he scolded him in front of Aysha afterwards. He might even get a reward out of it. Excited Victor continued his rows of attacks, each time suppressing Lucas more and more.
So this is his strength, Lucas thought as he continuously stepped back, barely managing to stop the attack each time, feeling the clumsiness of his movements compared to his opponent’s.
Aysha was worried seeing this scene. Lucas seemed to be in a pretty bad spot in the fight, and he couldn’t take the upper hand or even strike back, the smile of confidence in Victor’s face was clear as day. She simply didn’t understand why Lucas had accepted that fight in the first place; even if he was confident, his opponent was three levels above his, and he wasn’t even familiarized with the sword. Why didn’t he ask for an axe? Was the question that kept appearing on her mind.
And as for the terms of the bet, in case Lucas loses… let’s just say that she had no intention of following any of that. She had already decided that she wouldn’t be a pawn on other people’s games anymore. That was also her second chance, and she didn’t care about the conditions of this stupid bet, even if she needed Nicholas’ cooperation for their plan. Lucas was her first friend in this world, and probably one of the only ones in her life. She wouldn’t give this up, not even for the sake of their plan. But she still felt nervous watching him fight. Any mistake, a slower reaction, and he would be done for.
Nicholas couldn’t hold back a smile, seeing Lucas retreat more and more at each attack. Now he felt a little stupid by his initial hesitancy to accept the bet. That guy was clearly thinking too much of himself when he made those demands. Come on, Victor, finish him off, he thought. But what Lucas said next made his mind stop working for a while.
“All right, enough of the warm-up, I’ll be serious now,” Lucas said, with a confident smile now on his face.
In the next second, Victor had a bleeding cut on his face and a very stunned expression as he backed away quickly. He had barely seen Lucas’ hands move, and only had time to dodge with his head before the sword arrived. What the hell was that? He thought frantically. Was he holding back before? But how…
His thoughts were cut short as Lucas barrage of attacks arrived in the next second, giving him no time to breath.