“Who are you to-” the guy began but was cut off by Selene.
“All of you, take 50 steps back. Masked man, do the same for your subordinates, then we can talk.” ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
“Lady Selene..!” Many protested his but were shut down fiercely.
“Your father owes my family quite a lot of debt, no? Listen to me or we’ll come knock on your doors as soon as the Trials are over.”
Similar threats played out until the mob listened. I did the same for my team, just with much less back and forth. Ambition as the other leader stayed with me, while the rest backed 50 steps.
“You’re kinda familiar.” The warrior guy muttered under his breath while glancing at me.
“Cedric, baby, he’s the guy we met at the shabby arms shop.”
Cedric thought inwardly for a moment while stroking his chin, then shook his head. “I don’t remember at all.”
I chuckled and decided to help the mage out. “You know, I gave you the big scare after which you jumped back like a startled kitten began threatening me, saying you’ll destroy me. We made a deal that we would settle our differences during the Trials, so this wish of yours to negotiate is a bit of a surprise to me.”
His features contorted as he reached for his blade, “you! I remember now!”
“Calm down.” That much was already enough for Selene to momentarily calm her bull. “You’ve grown, though…” She then followed up by tilting her neck back to look up at me.
“Growth spurt.” I refused to reveal why I was smaller back then. Naturally, it was because I was wearing the height disorienting robes Borderick gifted us. The reason why we’re not wearing them is that they tear easily, so we decided to relegate them for non-combat situations.
“Oh. I see.” Selene nodded while not at all believing my words, then continued. “Could you put your differences with my fiance aside for this round?”
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I shrugged my shoulders, “honestly, I already forgot about his existence. The only reason I even recognized you two is your giant twin mounds, lush hair, and stuck up bitchy attitude.”
This time Cedric didn’t open his mouth, instead simply choosing to draw his blade and jump at me. I raised my own weapon to parry but before our swords could clash, Ambition stepped in front of me and delivered a mighty swing of her hammer towards the charging human.
The guy truly wasn’t bad. Now I could understand why Selene felt so confident in having a two on two negotiation despite seeing what Ambition and I are capable of. Cedric easily deflected the hammer with great finesse displayed. He resembled Ayame as far as mastery over the blade was concerned, and was even higher leveled based on his speed and strength.
“Enough, Cedric.” Selene’s cold words made the man pause momentarily just as he was about to plunge his sword into Ambition’s armor. I have no doubt she wasn’t about to be done by him, but I had to give credit; he was great for his age for sure.
“Thanks.” I nodded to Ambition once she got back next to me.
“I can’t let my team’s amazing offensive mage die… It’s my duty to protect you, after all.”
“You certainly have an attitude. Devil was it?” Selene asked dryly. She wasn’t overly happy about my previous statement.
“Yep. Pleased to meet you.”
“I wish I could say the same, but alas…” Her grimace said all I needed to hear. “Anyways, we wanted to talk to you about your team joining our group.”
“Don’t you already have 100 Phenoms?” I questioned with pretend puzzlement. Of course they don’t. After all, we just killed a couple of them. However, it was time I stopped giving them an attitude. They still had the numbers to mow us down.
“Not anymore… What do you say?”
“Your team will for sure lose against the other alliance. They seem much stronger and significantly more organized. I believe you to also be aware of this fact, so you have a backup plan. Let’s hear it before we go any further.” I refuse to be their chess piece while they weasel their way to victory.
Selene sighed frustratedly, glanced around, then leaned in closer. She explained how they will betray their allies. The cold woman wanted me to help them kill members of the other alliance to ensure that enough Phenoms die among the enemy’s ranks since she saw how good we are.
I was presented with two bad choices.
On one hand, we could join them and fight together, but such a giant clash between a thousand combatants was unpredictable at best. Furthermore, we never fought in big groups before. It’s a straight up army warfare at this point. Lastly, we might also get backstabbed. I would sooner cut my member off than trust an ounce of what this cunning fox of a woman tells me.
On the other hand, I could refuse their offer, which would result in us findings ourselves in a 12 vs ~500 fight. Naturally, that had to be stopped from happening at any cost.
“Sorry, but we will have to refuse. I hate working under others, especially if they have such sly eyes like yours. However, before you order our execution I have an offer myself. We will go our own way, and when your clash happens we will backstab the other team, wreaking havoc in their backline. I’m sure a lot of Phenoms will be standing at the back, so we will be very effective. You might not even have to betray your allies. I’m sure you know that the insect-helmeted guards would see it and report your actions to the higher ups. You might get the Phenom rank, but I doubt your future prospects beyond that would be anything enviable.”
My statement forced both of them to wince, evidently being aware of the truth as well. However, Selene was too crafty to agree just go along this. “Nice try, but I can’t agree. You’re at our mercy, so such a third option would be too generous of us for my liking. Join our ranks and do our bidding or perish.”
“You know, this is what I like to call self-sabotage. You will kill us, yes, but then will go on to lose against the other alliance. Let’s go even further, we will shout that you plan to betray your followers. I might just be a mage with a shitty hybrid build, but can you even kill this mighty tanker before she gets the message across? Your boytoy tried and I wouldn’t bet on your odds of success.”