Lidie's POV
There were many arenas in the Imperial city, in truth they didn't really look like an arena, they were just large squares surrounded by strange wooden or maybe paper walls, there were seats only at two sides and there was little room for large spells, meaning that this was probably an arena for warriors to compete.
Max had also called Galie and Red to view his match against the strange swordsman.
In truth the man named Honda was somewhat infamous in the imperial city, the reason being that he instigated others to duel with him and then unleased his true power.
To understand why he only fought well in the arena, you will have to understand a few things about the eastern swordsmen.
The samurais and other swordsmen of the east used soul power to attack, something made their swords stronger, but soul power was the same as psychic power and only in the arena were they allowed to use their psychic powers to battle others.
Honda's reason for challenging Max however wasn't because he wanted to duel him, he wanted to humiliate him. He had already figured out Max's level and potential and by all means he could only be called weak.
Of course the meaning behind this goes to a few months before.
Honda was proud and one of the strongest swordsmen in the Imperial city, he bravely went to challenge the Drogan arena, a place where all the most powerful people go, the annual Drogan tournament only happens once a year so he hurried all the way there.
He was overcomfident and ignorant, in truth he had never fought a westener before. The truth was that he had a major flaw, he thought that katanas were the ultimate form of the sword.
In a few words he lost horribly by a full plate knight, he tried to slice through the gaps in the armor like in the anime and other such shows but he quickly understood that it was imposible to do so on a moving target, and to tell the truth the katana wasn't really meant for piercing, it's true strength can only be seen in slashing your oponents and make them bleed to death.
After he lost he was then insulted by his collegues who had went to see him fight, it was really a disgrace for their swordsmanship.
The others easily won against the same oponent by disarming him and throwing him on the ground.
The heavy armor was thus neutralized and they could easily strike the gaps in the armor or just overpower him.
Honda challenged Max thinking that all westerners only used full plate armors and was surprised to see that Max only wore a half plate, not even donning a helm.
He only had a torcho armor and shoulder plates, while in his hands he had a rather mediocre two handed axe.
Honda could only smile happily as he thought that he could fully redeem his honor with this, if he defeated a westerner easily he would no longer be insulted by his collegues.
In truth being a top swordsman in the Jin territory wasn't hard since there weren't many swordsmen to begin with. The Yokai territory had many times over the number of swordsment and if anyone wanted to boast he had to go over to the Yokai side to prove himself.
The spectators who were mostly women looked with rather surprised, many of them ate Max with their eyes. In truth he seemed like a God from legends, he was far taller than Honda and his axe far larger than his katana.
How could they however have known that he was just strong on the outside, many of the girls saw Honda in a new light right now.
After all challenging someone this strong seemed fascinating and dangerous.
Lidie could see that Max was somewhat nervous at the moment, he probably wasn't used to being spectated by so many people and Lidie didn't even know what psychic power Max wielded, they hadn't asked him even once.
"Do you think that Max will be okey?"
Asked Galie as they sat rather far away from the two duellists.
"My man can't be weak, he will be just fine"
Red said with self confidence.
"Like hell he will, don't listen to her Galie, it's not so bad to lose from time to time, it will help him develop a drive and train better"
Said Lidie trying to prepare them for his imminent loss, after all she knew that the swords that the other swordsman was using were all top tier equipment, how could Max even compete with someone who was better equiped than him.
A gong rung and the duel begun, Honda was still wearing his eyepatch and in just one moment a strange blood red aura exloded from him.
Max could feel a tiny bit of pressure on his body at the moment.
"Is this psychic power?"
Asked Galie somewhat surprised because soul power and psychic power inside the game felt almost the same.
"Nope, he's just using his soul power to suppress his opponents, or in this case opponent"
A voice said from nearby, turning their heads they saw that the one who had spoken was a ninja.
"If this isn't psychic power then what is it?"
Galie asked somewhat puzzled, with her power she could definetely recognize that this soul power was 100% the same as psychic power.
"This is a game skill, there are tons of them, most of which come from your professions but some special ones are taught from npcs or skill tablets"
The ninja answered.
Galie could only nod, meaning that she understood what he said.
Suddenly Honda charged, he had no sword in his hands but both his hands were on one of his sheethed swords.
"He wants to quickdraw!"
some people said with a surprised expression.
Honda seemed happy for some reason as he rapidly approached Max in a rather inhumane speed.
A pity that not everything went as he had expected, Max too charged at him with a shout.
Max's speed was not fast but his shout not only broke Honda's timing but it also stuned him.
No this was no skill, it a simple shout but it was so loud that many people had surely misunderstood it for a skill.
Honda's quickdraw fell on thin air as Max wasn't even nearby when he drew his katana out.
He could only curse, but he hadn't lost yet, after all he knew full well how crapy Max's equipment were.
One swing, it only took one swing of his sword to cut the axe in two, reducing it's durability to zero.
Honda's favorite sword raise his soul power by 10%, making both his psychic powers and soul skills stronger, the sword soul edge muramasa was his most prized posession, a pity that in the Drogan arena psychic, soul and magic powers were useless, only raw strength mattered.
"Die!"
Shouted Honda as he sent a second slash, this would be his winning attack, two sword strikes to defeat an opponent would be a great achievement for him.
Clank!
He heard the sound of his sword hitting on metal, he probably didn't know but Max had used his shoulderpad to deflect the sword while he himself charged at Honda.
In truth there was no wrestling class in Allastar but the fighter class did have some unarmed damage bonus, which of course noone used.
German suplex...armlock...boston crab...
The crowd was left speechless, if not for Honda's stupid action of getting too close, he could have probably won but now a chain of wrestling moves were used one after the other.
The Hp damage they did wasn't great but the pain cause Honda to lose stamina like crazy and in the end he fell unconcious.
The spectators were shocked, after all it was Honda he was fighting. Defeating Honda in three moves was unheard of in the Imperial city, even in the Drogan tournament he had fought for some time before losing.
Of course replicating what Max had done was also hard for most of the other players, the main reason was because there had to be close to the other player, second you had to have enough strength stat to lift the other player and lastly you had to have more in the strength stat than the other player.
Max had crappy equipment but he was by now used to carry extraordinary amounts of heavy loot. His strength stat was rather high, although his damage stat wasn't so great due to his crappy weapon.
After Max understood that Honda had fainted, he stood up took the two parts of his broken axe and put it back into his inventory, in truth he was a little sad because he had just broken the weapon Lidie had given him.
To him it wasn't just a weapon, it was their first even talk. He remembered how Lidie had asked him which was his favorite weapon, he then begun talking about his experience with many weapons and how he had once used a two handed axe and before he knew it Lidie threw him a two handed axe and left.
He wanted to cry right now as the axe was broken in two, he looked around until his gaze locked on Lidie.
He then saw her pointing at him somewhat nervously, everyone else looked as nervous as her at the moment.
A painful feeling came from his back, he couldn't see it but Honda had woken up and attacked him from behind.
Of course Max knew that the arena duels were till your Hp were out but he was to hung up at that moment to remember the rules.
"Boo!"
"Backstaber!"
"Scum!"
Only after the voices of the crowd resounded did Honda understand that he had just soiled his own honor as a samurai. You have to attacking that the code of honor stated that attacking from behind in a duel was one of the most disgraceful and shameless acts. Even the npcs who were seeing the fight were ashamed for him being from their Jin territory.
Honda wanted to cry right now, at this moment there was only one thing he could do.
Honda took his sword and with a single stroke cut his own guts.
The crowd knew this skill it was called seppuku, it was a skill only for samurais and it helped players to regain their honor points as a samurai.
Of course it came with the side effect of dying but it was preferable to living without honor.
For players Seppuku is like saying sorry to their opponent for their disgraceful actions.
There were two reasons why Honda's actions could be called a disgrace, first was because his opponent had no weapon and second because in his fury he had attacked him from behind without making any noise at all. Those were no acts of a warrior, if he was a ninja or a monk or any other class there would have been no problem doing something like that but the samurai profession had one aspect no other profession had, Pride.
The samurai swordsmen were probably the strongest warriors on the continent, aside of course from the sword saint and sword demon who were the follow up professions, which were unlocked if one had mastered the samurai profession. The samurai used soul power in their sword strokes and had strong passive skills that made them really strong. The only problem they had was that they had to abide by a strict code of honor when duelling. At war there was no need to abide by them unless the enemy challenges you to a duel.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The Samurai had two main passive skills one was killing spirit and the other Honorable spirit.
The two were used the same way but they decided if you would become a sword saint or a sword demon.
By killing other players in duels you gained killing spirit while by fighting honorably you gained honorable spirit. By gain I mean you raised your max spirit, of course you couldn't have more than a set amount of spirit, since the two spirits split your soul into two halves, so the stronger your soul the better your potential.
You might ask why I'm stating all this, to tell the truth I don't know, maybe to justify Honda's suicide or maybe to give you a taste of what Allastar had to offer.
"He won, that lad really won!"
The ninja shouted happily and run towards the betting stage where many angry people were standing, most of them had probably bet on Honda.
Galie could see a tear falling from Lidie's eye, of course she couldn't have known what the reason behind the tear was.
Lidie would probably never tell anyone that she had just lost a quarter of her money by betting on Honda.
Red on the other side with a smile went to the betting stage to take her earnings.
"I told you that my man was strong"
She said to them when she returned making Lidie even more miserable.
Max had tears in his eyes as well, from happiness, in his thoughts he thought that Lidie was crying tears of happiness for him so with one swift move his threw her in the air and caught her in his arms hugging her and giving her a deep kiss.
The girls from the crowd went mad from jealousy but they liked what they saw, they even shouted kiss! kiss! Kiss! when their kiss had ended.
They wanted to take a photo of the lovely couple.
After all not everyone is jealous and mean, many girls were happy for them, although Red was surely the first type.
Lidie didn't know what to do now, she was in the spotlight and she felt as if her soul was just shattered, motionless she could only look at him.
Their gaze was locked, but neither of them talked, in truth both had nothing to say and before they knew it the cheers ended and everyone awaited for another romantic moment, Even Galie who was an alien to this world felt a hint of romantic love in the air.
Lidie could thing nothing but whisper into his ear secretly while smiling.
"If you do that again I will kill you"
Thus ended the romantic scene with her smiling to him and escorting him away.
=====================================================
Domina's POV
If before Domina wanted to go to Allastar, then now he didn't. The Black devil had already amassed a great number of demons, but he was 100% loyal, after all he was edited by Domina to be loyal to him.
Domina now lived in a demon town not far away from Sho's Lair. Sho was an eccentric overlord, he didn't care about anything other than his rather large lair.
In reality his lair took 1/6 of the whole A1 territory.
"Master, my subordinates are rather anxious about when we will be invading Allastar, especialy the other Devils are rather mad at me"
said the Black Devil called Methisto, Domina had seen many other Black Devils, every one of them had a different name but he had found out that they were somewhat linked to the one before him.
"Alright, but there's one rule that everyone will have to abide, if they sign a contract with me I will this instance tell Sho to help me open the gate to Allastar"
Domina said, in truth he was getting bored of the four colorful hookers, it wasn't that he didn't like them anymore, they were simply perfect but he had those demons under his feet and the four of them were a little too perfect. He liked it when his girls weren't too perfect and had a personality of their own, it makes them seem more real not to talk about the feeling they give.
"Master all the other devils have agreed"
The black devil said.
Domina had devised a contract with three demands from them, first they would have to first ask him before killing any creature, second they would obey his commands, unless of course the command threatens their life, lastly they had to give him any skill tablet, spellbook or anything that he could use.
Domina was somewhat desperate at the moment for better skills, his own skills were rather weak, or so he thought since he hasn't used them even once.
After the contract was signed by all of them they went to sho's lair. before they knew it all of them faded away and appeared in the boneyard cave.
"I see you are back"
"Back!" "Back!" "Go Back!" "Go Back!"
Continued Sho's echoes were rather strange today, each echo sounded like a different voice.
"I am ready to leave"
Said Domina as he hugged the colorful bitches.
"I see you brought this guy, well I don't really care, to tell you the truth I'm happy that you will leave"
"Leave!" "Leave!" "Leave!"
The echoes sounded more angry than sho himself.
"Whatever can we start already?"
Domina said, he was rather impatient, after all the faster they leave the better it will be for him, since the other demons will stop nagging him about when they will leave.
Domina felt a great pain for some reason, he could only cry out in pain, but he could see that this was not a trap, a small red portal was slowly being opened and the bones from the ground begun levitating to create a frame around it.
"Begin entering!"
Shouted Sho
"Entering" "Enter ring" "Enter"
The echoes said sounding somewhat happy.
The demons quickly begun entering the ever growing portal. The more the portal grew the more painful it became for Domina, well in truth it wasn't as painful as when he was cut into pieces or turned into a puddle of blood but it was painful.
"Faster!"
Shouted Sho as he saw that there were too many demons still left behind Domina.
"Faster!" "Faster!" "Fast!"
The echoes continued in a mocking manner.
Domina came to regret agreeing to let so many black Devils come, they were really too many, if he didn't know better, he could have sworn that there were far fewer when they had gathered.
Domina felt weak as time passed by, he could see his max Hp lowering as time passed by, the black devils had almost all passed through but Domina was now as small as a human, while before he was his gigantic self.
The last Black Devil passed through the portal, he could see unhappiness written all over his face.
"Master, I'm the last one, next is your turn"
Said the Devil before he left with a happy smirk.
Sho was also smiling at the time, the young pretty boy had an evil smirk on his face.
Suddenly the portal begun shrinking and Domina saw that his Max Hp returned to him.
"When you think you can pass through, make haste and leave"
Said sho satisfied.
"Leave" "Leave" "Don't leave"
The voices said sounding somewhat sad.
Domina didn't even wait to become much bigger, once he heard that he could leave he simply steped through the Large portal and left.
He didn't care about Hp after all he was a guardian, he could still cheat a little and raise his Hp, not to talk about the "copy&paste" technique which he hadn't used even once yet.
=====================================================
Mom's POV
Leo the leader of the Helllion guild, was in full throttle now, the guilds from the Isleplains didn't know why but suddenly he became too fierce, there were also rumors that a very powerful player came to Allastar to help him.
In Rubrick, where the Guild's main HQ was there was a couple having a fight.
"Honey, I told you that we should let him be, he's a large man now, him finding a girlfriend is something natural"
Leo said to the strange woman next to him, she was wearing a strange futuristic leather suit. It had strange gogles for eyes and covered her whole body.
"You want our son to get married with the most wanted woman on earth, are you crazy!"
She shouted, not even waiting for a few seconds she instantly disappeared and appeared in a huge crowd.
It was the arena of the Eal Island, she had visited the place once before, after all it was one of the many greatest shoping centers in the world of Allastar.
Down in the arena she could see the fight between her son and a samurai. If the samurai hadn't killed himself, she would have sent a bullet right through his head. If anyone had seen her weapon they would have gasped, after all the laser sniper rifle of hers was not a weapon from Allastar but from Altgaia.
When she understood that her son had won she was somewhat happy inside and then it begun, the drama, the romance, even she was moved by the sight of her son being happy.
But what made her somewhat angry was what she heard her whispering to his ears. She could detect even the smallest of sounds and the word "kill" made her rather cold she didn't really understand what her son had done wrong but knowing that Lidie was the most notorius in the funny stars wanted list, she could do nothing but grit her teeth from her anger.
In the middle of the night she found the blue head who had said that she would kill her son. The scope of her gun was pointing at her head, the girl looked happy as she was talking with a red headed woman, if she wasn't a centurion with high access she probably wouldn't have known who the red haired person was.
The assassination attempt has failed, but she will be watching.
'Mama will never let her Maxie die'
She thought as she took her gun and teleported towards her son's location.
She was surprised to find that the blue headed girl was already here, in truth there was little info on the twin stars, only later did she see that there were two blue heads in her son's party.
'Maybe I will stay and watch for a little'
She thought, after all it was rather strange how a diva was so friendly with the twin stars, the most wanted killers of all time.