Chapter 29: Proceres Altercationem

A/N - "Proceres Altercationem" doesn't translate that well but the meaning I'm going for is "duel of chiefs" FYI.

*****

"Well, shit,"

This guy's strong, even just being in his presence feels like a weight is added to my shoulders, but... I can kill this guy.

A sadistic grin soon grew on my face and I wasn't able to suppress it, allowing the harpies to see it. Some of them backed off but James and the big guy over there just started staring at me. As he walked down some stairs that were ingrained in the wall the pressure felt heavier. Once he got to the very bottom and stood in front of us, I started to have second thoughts.

tsk

I don't know if I can kill this guy. If this guy is stronger than James that must mean he's the chief or something. That is also not including the other fire harpies around us, if I try and kill him they might come after me. Do I have to play my card confidently or wait...?

"Where was your smile from earlier... kid," the 7-foot man in front of me asks.

Activating [Commanders Presence] the pressure from earlier quickly lightened, relaxing my muscles instantly.

"Oh, what are you talking about," I say while having the most carefree expression in the world.

Raising my head to look him in the eyes I see him about to bust a vein from my comment. I only smirk at which turns his face red in anger.

'DAMN! I can't get mad at this lady just for her being here. I need to uphold my pride and honor as the chief of fire harpies. If I let my emotions show just because this weakling thinks she's everything I can't call myself the chief,' the tall harpy cursed in his mind.

"Chief this bitch needs to die! She's super disrespectful and full of herself; also, she's too powerful for her stats, we need to team up on her in case she was hiding even more of her strength," James announced.

"NO! I CAN NOT DO THAT! My pride as the chief of fire harpies must be upheld so... I challenge... Arpious to a 'Proceres Altercationem!'" the chief declared after hacking her status.

Why does that sound Latin? I may not have studied Latin but, I at least know that phrase was definitely Latin... well I may know that it's Latin but I have no clue what it actually means.

"But chief that means you are risking your title, why should you do it against somebody who is not the same race as you? What if she actually wins... that means we'll have to follow somebody of another race," one of the harpies said whilst looking at me in disgust.

"SHUT UP! Get the duel ready... QUICKLY,"

"What a loud man, nobody will want to date you if you're like this all the time," I said while looking up at him with a frown.

He just ignored me and started ordering people around.

...

After about an hour of loitering around the canyon, I was led by a fire harpy towards the huge house from before. Before we entered though they confiscated my scythe, it was more like they took and broke it into pieces though.

It's not like I cared much for it... it was literally just a scythe made out of the condensed rock from my castle, it was going to break eventually.

As we passed through the house I took the time to look around.

The house reeked of animal blood that also stained some of the walls and parts of the floor. Heads of monsters that were familiar and unfamiliar were plastered on the wall that still gave the feeling that they were alive. Furniture and weapons were scattered carelessly around the room which gave me the feeling of wanting to tidy the place up but...

WHAT AM I, THIS GUYS MAID!

As we finished traveling up the house and onto its roof there were another set of stairs ingrained into the canyon wall, but these went up instead of down. We climbed up the short fleet of stairs until we saw a very apocalyptic sight.

I realized we were on top of the canyons and it was very barren. It was just a neverending surface of orange and brown rock. There were no hills but just ravines in the ground that I assumed were the canyons. You could have sent a tumbleweed rolling across it and I wouldn't have been surprised.

Scouting around more I saw a small ring made of rocks with a diameter of 10 meters. Surrounding the ring were fire harpies of all ages, which as soon as I walked onto the barren wasteland they all directed their gazes at me with the same feelings as before.

"Well, shall we get started," I said while stepping into the ring.

As the harpies gazed towards the ring it added a different kind of pressure from what I felt when I stood up against the chief.

Kumo was spectating from outside the ring surrounded by 3 fire harpies holding spears. Also, James was talking about something with the chief, so I signaled for Kumo to pay attention to James in case he does something stupid.

The chief finally finished discussing with James and he stepped into the ring taking his shirt off.

"Since you don't have a weapon I will not use a weapon... NOW BRING IT!" he shouted which quickly dissolved in the open rocky plain we were in.

"Please stop shouting, you're going to hurt this lady's ears if you continue," I say while getting into a more relaxed stance.

The more I fought the better I understood how I should start. In the beginning, I would always go into a fighting stance with my hands guarding my chest and head but I soon realized that this would always tense my muscles up. Experimenting more as I fought I found that I was always better in a more relaxed stance that was me standing up straight while relaxing everything. The old me would have thought this was stupid but it actually worked... most of the time. There would be times that I accidentally tensed up from nerves that were within expectations.

I kind of wish there was a skill that allowed me to suppress my nerves or fear.

[Error]

It was worth a shot, just in case I got really unlucky before.

The chief activated something which coated his body in a white flame with flashes of rainbow that blinded me when I looked at them. Not hesitating I quickly activated [Boost] before the chief lunged at me with his hand in the shape of a claw.

I parried the attack with my hand and kicked straight at his stomach from below. The chief expected this and twisted his body, displaying incredible flexibility despite his size he dodged my kick and tried to punch my head whilst still in the air.

Shocked by his sudden act of flexibility I tensed up a bit but was still able to barely block the punch, leaving my hands stinging. As the impact was so strong I was sent sliding backward on my feet towards the edge of the ring. Before he could follow up I wrapped shadows around his ankles with [Shadow Magic] which kept him in place while I also threw a round-house kick to his head.

The kick landed but he used the momentum to bend his body back, breaking out from his ankle restraints. Not allowing him to have a quick recovery, I immediately sent a [Thunderbolt] directly at him but somehow dispersed once they touched his flames.

tsk

How do I beat this guy... his flames are more like something that cancels out magic rather than actually being hot. When I kicked his head I barely felt anything, it was kind of just like a heater that you would use in winter. Also, my physical strength can't compare to his...

"Ah," my serious face slowly turned into a wide grin that sent chills down some of the spectating harpies spines.

The chief saw how I was inspecting his flames and got angry for some reason, causing him to charge at me with an incredible speed. I parried his entire body sending him tumbling onto his knees but I kept my right hand on his shoulder.

[Forbidden Magic: Medusa]

His shoulder was turning to stone but not quite as fast as when I did it to James. This was probably due to his fire canceling out part of it.

I came up with this idea since his body probably had a limit to it because when he activated it, his veins had started to bulge. I thought this was just due to him getting ready but it seemed like the bulge had never gone away no matter how much time passed. Assuming he had a limit, that probably meant he couldn't apply it directly to his skin since when I kicked him earlier in the head the heat had drastically decreased at the top of my foot which is where I landed my kick on him. This lead to the idea of applying my magic directly to his skin and what is the best at doing that... [Forbidden Magic: Medusa].

The chief felt a sudden pain and numbness on his right shoulder which he quickly withdrew from the situation. Seeing this James started glaring at me which I tried to ignore but it just felt like ants crawling on my skin.

"Bastard," I muttered under my breath.

Trying to ignore the glaring James I focus my attention on the worrying chief. After seeing the damage done to his right shoulder he touched it but it crumbled under the slight pressure he gave.

"AHHHHHH,"

He felt the pain of his entire arm coming off but no blood had come out due to the stone blocking it. He started to glare at me in anger and fear at the same time. Like a beast cornered he panicked and started to swing in my direction with his hands in the shapes of claws.

I slowly walked over to him and the closer I got the paler his face had become. Suddenly, his eyes had turned black with red pupils and gave off an eerie glow.

"Berserk."