Welldark B1 Ch. 01

Aclysia took a small bow before her opponent, holding her silver salver in both hands. "I will gladly be your opponent," she spoke in the same dutiful tone as her mother did. I couldn't help but want to see her in nothing but an apron making pancakes for me. Her chest seemed a bit on the smaller side, but I wasn't one to discriminate between chest or hip jiggle. A spankable ass was as good as a nice chest, in my humble opinion. Similarly, the size of breasts wasn't quite so important that I couldn't enjoy whatever I was granted to touch. "May I ask your name?"

"Esther," there was no follow-up to the rest, that single word was all she let them know. "It will be an honour. Do I assume correctly that Artefacts are allowed?"

Derilea answered from behind the barrier, now standing in the lower area between ring and seats. "You may fight with whatever weapon you wish, I do assume neither of you are foolish enough to keep going until your Astrality gives in." Esther nodded and reached up to her hat, plucking off the white feather with a simple move.

In a sharp movement, she cut the air with it and the sound of singing metal suddenly filled the air. The feather had been replaced with a weapon. Two blades, joined at the handle, one a long sabre the other a shortsword. Grey from one tip to the other, it had winding runes etched into the flat parts of the blades. She held it with one hand, the tip of the sabre pointing at the ground and the shortsword reaching behind her back. It was an odd weapon, one that needed a lot of training and skill to properly handle.

The salver in Aclysia's hands liquified and transformed as well. Silver and black and covered in a vast array of ornaments, a spear now rested in the white-haired woman's hands. This weapon was many times more intricate in its design than the weapon of her opponent. The audience began to whisper, as they watched the display.

"There are first years that can already use Artefacts in battle?" Willt shared the public surprise. "I can barely keep mine out for more than a minute..."

"You can't?" I asked with an overplayed amount of mockery. He and Arlethia gave me disbelieving glances. "What? You should know I am good at most things by now."

"And what can you do then?" Arlethia challenged, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared up to me. The question was in regard to my Artefact's ability. Those items were manifestations of their creator's will and granted them, when wielded, a unique power. Well, as unique as was possible, given the confines of recognizable things in the universe. There was certainly a lot of overlap between similar abilities, but two that didn't have any differences whatsoever were exceedingly rare. "Knowing you, something whimsical and stupid."

"You could call it that," I agreed, "but let's talk about it after this fight."

The two women in the arena had begun to move. Their measured steps were taken with care, as if they were taking part in the same waltz. Unknowing of the scope of each other's abilities, they didn't allow themselves any careless or hasty movements. In their approach, however, they differed quite a bit. Esther's path, with each certain step of her heavy boots, carried her towards her enemy, while Aclysia was circling the rim of their arena.

The position of their weapons also differed for how similar they were in overall length. In totality, the spear had the advantage in reach, courtesy of the unusual shape of Esther's blade. Based purely on the weapon's match-up, the headmaster's daughter was favoured to win.

'This beautiful Esther woman is maintaining a neutral pose,' I thought, watching their body language intently. A basic grip, arms only slightly stretched, and a focus on balance, all of that made for a pose that could be held quite a while and that could quickly shift into a more appropriate stance to slash, stab or parry. The small runes along the back of her blades began to glow one by one, creeping upwards from the bare-metal guards. 'I guess she is benefiting in some way from a slow start. I can't really make sense of what the young maid is doing though."

Aclysia had her posture and the tip of her spear lowered. In principle, I agreed that this was a good defensive stance to have. Every attempt to charge at her would be met with a swift stab in the guts. However, she had taken the 'lowering' part far further than was effective, dragging the tip of her weapon over the floor. That left her wide open towards a close-range charge.

Soon, I got a clue about what Aclysia was trying to do. A switch of camera angle showed the gap between the white tiles she had passed over to be oddly distorted. 'Size of the area affected seems to be respondent to the time she kept her Artefact in place,' I observed, wondering what exactly the effect was.

Aclysia suddenly inverted her path. With much quicker steps, bordering on a sprint, she trailed back. The distorted parts of the ground followed along the tip of her spear and once she arrived at her original position, she quickly rotated around her own axis. Liquefied stone trailed after the movement and consolidated into a sphere - launched directly at Esther.

The stone hardened back into its original state. Over a hundred kilograms of rock came flying at an impressive pace at the raven-haired woman. Suddenly, as if someone had pressed the forward button for her and only her, the tricorne-wearing student accelerated. Smoothly, she dodged out of the way.

The rock passed behind her back as she made a quick step forward and thrust her left arm out. Just as the rock smashed onto the ground, the screaming thunder of magical lightning echoed out. Blue light exploded from Esther's palm, a bolt of electrical energy that struck Aclysia in the stomach.

I whistled, "Combat magic as a melee fighter against a melee fighter? Using her Astrality like that in close quarter combat is pretty brazen. I like this girl."

"Of course you like her, she has a gorgeous face, big tits and a juicy ass," Arlethia rolled her eyes, as she remarked this. "Everyone would like her at first glance."

"You know me so well, we must be kindred souls. I would ask you out on a date, if I didn't respect your boyfriend too much."

Aclysia took the punishment well. She didn't scream or even a whimper from the pain. Her clothing received a bit of searing, revealing some of the naked skin of her stomach under the shirt. An indication that the damage couldn't have been too bad. An Astral Body maintained one's current physical state, including things worn closely to the body. That being said, the body was always the priority of restoration and things outside of it suffered gradual degradation.

It was common to gauge the remaining Astral Capacity of the enemy through how much more intact clothing they had. The body was protected from lethal blows and wounds in general. The presence of people that knew about the Dimensional Truth was etched into the Astral Plane and reset them to an unblemished state after receiving wounds, as long as they had enough Astrality left. It was important that people gave up before they ran out; once their Astral Body was broken, they could be wounded just like any other being. If they weren't careful with how they dealt with those wounds, the resulting scars could end up as part of their new true body. There was also the whole 'dying' business.

At least at the Cosmic Universities, people either stopped voluntarily or were forced to before it came to that point. Dead students were bad for business, as it turned out. Out in the worlds, all bets were off, but many would rather subjugate their opponent than kill them. Which led back to the whole gauging thing.

Generally talking, a person that entered a fight clothed and ended naked had depleted their entire Astral Capacity. As wounds were healed, less and less of the energy went to maintain that additional layer and more to the core body.

Alternatively, one managed to transform the fight into a whole different activity through successful flirting. Chances of that were rather low, but not zero. I certainly hoped that both of the ladies down low, or at least some that were equally attractive, would one day engage with me in ways that were more fun than brawling.

Anyway, I already liked this reality quite a lot because of this. It meant that all of those strong-headed hotties could be fought earnestly, leaving their bodies unharmed while they got progressively less clothes on. Because this was an ability of the mind that could be disabled, spanking asses until they were red was still a possibility. The best of all worlds.

"Your self-control is respectable," Esther complimented as they both stood their ground, the distance between them now less than three steps. That voice of hers still sent shivers down my spine. It was like she was wrapping the inside of my ear canals with silk.

Even if an Astral Body prevented damage, the pain was very much real. Aclysia took her battle stance again. "I thank you for the kind words," the white-haired woman declared, pointing her spear directly at her enemy now. Her Artefact ability was not going to be useful this close anyway. "It is my obligation to emerge victorious regardless of how nice you are, though. I will win."

"Unlikely," Esther's melodic tone made it hard to decipher if she was mocking or just confident. Either way, she charged and bridged the distance between the two of them in a flash. The same effect that had allowed her to dodge so easily earlier was now utilized offensively. Before Aclysia even knew what was happening, the longer blade of Esther's conjoined weapon was coming for her head.

In a desperate attempt to block, she ripped up her spear. Grey met silver, a singing clash followed by a prolonged screech, the edge grinding over the ornate shaft of Aclysia's spear and sliding closer to the green-eyed woman's fingers. Although Astral Bodies prevented even the loss of limbs, proper severance was one large tax on a person's Astrality.

A chance for relief came when Esther's blade got stuck in a particularly deep ornament. Exploiting that opening, Aclysia twisted the spear sideways. The raven-haired woman had to jump backwards, to not be hit by the tip of the weapon.

Trailing her spear over the ground, Aclysia retreated until she was comfortable with the distance created. This first engagement had gone clearly to Esther, but the fight wasn't over. They had their initial positions again, one slowly approaching, the other trailing the rim of the arena. This time, Aclysia didn't throw an attack out. That water had been tested and deemed too dangerous. Now they were both reconsidering their strategies.

The runes on Esther's weapon were asymmetrically charged. While the short sword had basically none of them glowing whatsoever, the sabre was almost filled to the tip. Now that I paid some attention to it, they also had slightly different colours. The main blade's runes were a greyish light, while the short sword was a pale blue. Similar, but not quite the same.

Aclysia kept transforming more of the floor into a liquid state, taking advantage of the prolonged gap between engagements. Everyone was holding their breath in anticipation. For most, it was the first time they saw two wielders of Artefacts fight.

I was slightly more relaxed about things. I hoped for the fight to either devolve into semi-nude catfighting or for them to show me more skillful combat. Either way, I would see something I liked. The art of battle was not my absolute favourite subject to study, but it was up there.

The second engagement started much like the first with Aclysia liquefying part of the floor. This time, however, she only pulled it out of the floor, leaving the ground around her marked by numerous trenches which made the footing unsteady. Esther, who had advanced close enough to charge in, still went on the aggressive. Lunging and leaping over the trenches, Esther aimed for Aclysia's head. She was quick, but not as quick as she had been with the earlier boost.

This fact allowed Aclysia to dodge to the side. She ripped up her weapon and thrust forwards. Esther blocked the attack by launching a lightning bolt at the tip of the spear, forcing it off its straight trajectory. When she landed, she immediately attempted a counter attack, only to find her feet enveloped by the liquified stone.

It hardened before she could move away, leaving her rooted and at the mercy of an opponent with superior range. Aclysia backed off just enough to exploit that fact and thrust towards her opponent. Robbed of her mobility, Esther could only surrender or be turned into a pin-cushion.

That's how it should have gone, at least, but Esther suddenly vanished. Aclysia's spear only penetrated air. Confused, she looked down for a moment, seeing the stone sphere with the foot-shaped empty core under her. Then her head flew upwards in search of her opponent. The order of actions betrayed a level of inexperience.

Just in time, Aclysia noticed her opponent standing where she had a few seconds prior, on the other side of the trenches. The screaming of magical thunder once more filled up the air. Aclysia managed to make the attack hit the side of her shoulder, rather than her chest.

Esther immediately resumed the attack, not giving her opponent any time to breathe. It must have been her conviction that another build-up of liquid materials would only have been to her disadvantage. Better to keep her enemy occupied. Another lunge crossed the distance between them in an accelerated charge. Aclysia gathered herself quickly, knocking aside the now lightless, monotone grey weapon, and retaliated with a swift thrust at Esther's head.

As certain and graceful as a wise owl, Esther leaned her head to the side. The diamond shaped blade of the spear scraped over the side of her face. Golden blood appeared for a moment, then her Astral Body sealed the wound. Both of them were frozen for a split second, stopping the momentum of their weapons and then reversing it to start a new attack.

A flurry of blows followed. Metal clashed again and again. Lunges were knocked aside, strikes parried and slashes dodged. It was a back and forth dance, both of them playing to the strengths of their weapon, Aclysia trying to keep Esther at a distance while the raven-haired woman aimed to break into close range. A fourth bolt of lightning clashed uselessly against a bubble of liquid stone. With every strike that missed and scrapped the floor, Aclysia built up more of her own resources. The even tiled ground of the arena transformed into a landscape of unnaturally smooth trenches.

She wasn't the only one continuously stacking up on ressources. The more they fought, the more of the runes on Esther's blade lit up again. Cacophonous, their weapons cut through the air. Two gorgeous women dancing a deadly waltz to a rhythm neither of them could completely dictate. One of them, however, had considerably more influence than the other.

For the first time in the entire fight, Aclysia took a hand off her spear and quickly aimed it at Esther's feet. Unleashing a blast of cold, she froze the raven-haired swordsman to the floor. Just like the earlier attempt at immobilization, Esther reacted to this by suddenly relocating to where she had been seconds ago. At the pace of this fight, that brought over a dozen metres between them.

Aclysia immediately transitioned into a throwing stance, keeping her already extended arm steady and pulling her right back. With a quick step forward, she unleashed her spear at her enemy. All the liquefied stone in the area was pulled along by the spears trajectory and created a wave of material following in the wake of the silver and black weapon.

Putting both hands on her weapon, the grip running parallel to her head, Esther crouched slightly and let the attack come at her. The tip of her tricorne, her blade, they both pointed directly at what her eyes focused. The spear was about to hit her in the chest when she started to move. With nigh untraceable speed, she darted to the side, only to then weave through the chaotic formation of rocks. Unscathed, she emerged on the other side. Even worse for Aclysia, Esther showed no signs of slowing, not as long as there were still runes glowing on the back of her shortsword. Within the moment, her blade was coming down in a diagonal slash.

Aclysia seemed to have planned a contingency spell, having put her hands closely together and concentrating her magic. A spell that she had to dismiss, the raven-haired woman utterly outpacing even her best efforts. Instead, she had to take one of the costliest actions open to her. Her spear suddenly appeared in her hands again. Re-summoning one's Artefact was a great sacrifice of Astrality.

Nevertheless, it allowed her to guard herself against the quick slash of the sabre. Vibrating from the impact, Esther's blade sang. It was immediately followed by a sound similar to a church bell that struck the first hour of the day. The handle of the previously joined blades parted. Just as the last runes extinguished along the flat side of the blade, Esther quickly twirled around and then thrust forwards. The tip of the sleek weapon penetrated the air, passed between Aclysia's arms, still fighting against the impact of the sabre, then stopped under the soft chin of the white-haired woman, the tip a paper's width away from cutting skin.

They stood still like this for a moment, Esther's amber eyes always staying in focus. It was over, all that remained to be seen was whether the end would be a clean or a messy one. "...It is my loss," Aclysia caved and collapsed the moment the weapons were retracted. From exhaustion or shame, I couldn't say.

"Discarding your Artefact, even for a powerful blow, against an adversary of unknown strength is an unwise decision," Esther commented, her smooth words between well-meant advice and scolding. The weapons in her hand turned into hundreds of small, glowing fibres that ultimately came together in the shape of the white feather. Putting that feather back onto her tricorne, she looked down at the white-haired woman for a moment. "I do commend your efforts, careless Aclysia."

Aclysia seemed to take that negatively, but the camera cut away from her before I could pass a proper judgement on that. Walking back into the ring, Derilea made a very slow and strictly unhappy sounding announcement, "...my daughter... has been defeated... Esther gets access to her own mansion for the next year."

'Ultimately, she didn't lose that much,' I thought. It would have been a bit cruel to immediately banish the person that scored highest on the entrance exams down to the shacks in the outskirts, especially for a fight they didn't have a choice but to accept. Still, it must have been a massive hit to both her and her mother's pride.

"Man, now she can pick her room with whomever she wants!" Arlethia grumbled. "I would do a lot just to be able to say 'I want to stay with my boyfriend!'"

Willt shrugged with a bit of a chuckle. "Look, I am not disagreeing with you," he let his succubus lover know, "but the thing you had to do was win that fight. Think you could have done that?"

"Not really, no..." Arlethia conceded immediately. Given that she, like her boyfriend, was unlikely to even hold her Artefact manifested for the entire fight, that was no wonder.

"Mhm... you can pick whomever you want, yes?" I said as a daring idea crossed my mind. I could kill two birds with one stone. Arlethia and Willt both turned to look at me with disbelieving eyes. They both knew what my whimsical tone indicated. "Not everyone is handed such an obvious path to their luck and I certainly will not ignore the call of fate. Opportunity cost is not a principle I will let hold me back at a time like this." With a grin, I added, "You guys will owe me something."