Book 3: Chapter 12: Infinite SP and Sophie's Brutality

Book 3: Chapter 12: Infinite SP and Sophie's Brutality

'It's so much bigger than the one in Ranton,' Lone thought as he entered the fighting ring of Golden Pass City's central arena.

The commentators were listing off everything interesting that was publicly known about Lone while they drummed up the excitement of the event. It was rare for the prince to fight in a battle that wasn't to the death, so even though not a single person thought this fight would last any longer than the prince allowed it to, they were riled up and more than pleased to be here nonetheless.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.

'There must be at least 300,000 people in the stands, if not more. Then there are the sight mages transmitting the show to the whole city. Prince Keining really pulled all of the stops here, huh? I only asked for a spar and here he is turning it into a, what, grand public humiliation or something?' Lone wondered.

He couldn't really blame the man. He was a busy XX-ranker, so if it become known that he could be challenged with little-to-no risk just by sparing one of his foolish offspring, well, that could be easily exploited to greatly waste the man's time. For what specific purpose, Lone didn't know, but he was sure there could be countless reasons to distract Prince Keining.

The roaring crowd and even loader commentators were silenced in an instant by the present sound mages in response to Prince Keining suddenly falling from the sky and landing in the middle of the arena.

'Did he jump in here? That's insane,' Lone thought while his blood began to boil with anticipation.

Prince Keining reached into his adventurer's pouch and pulled out a gorgeous spear that oozed with power. It sent a chill down Lone's spine and put a smile on his face.

"Good people of Golden Pass City," the ruler of the principality addressed the stadium, "Thank you for coming to witness this event. My son, Keith, foolishly attacked young Lone Immortus here for using blood magic. As I am sure you all know, blood magic is not an outlawed school in our fair principality. For being unjustly attacked and still choosing to spare my son's life, young Lone Immortus here was granted a boon by myself. He, in his thirst for power, asked for pointers in a spar with me."

'Wow. He's good with his words. What a way to twist it,' Lone nodded approvingly as he took some mental notes.

"Good people of Golden Pass City, what is it that we value above all else?" Prince Keining asked the silenced crowd.

A boom like the roar of a thunderstorm issued out from the stands as the sound mages removed their spells for a moment. "STRENGTH!"

"That's correct! I praise you, young Lone Immortus, for your lacking humility, thinking yourself worthy of learning from me. There is no shame to be found desiring more strength, thus your request was granted. I will allow you five strikes on my body and I will then attack you a single time but stop at the last moment. I am certain you will gain the most from this arrangement," the prince stated.

Lone shook his head. "No."

Though they had been silenced once more, the shock and offence on the faces of the crowd members were palpable. Talking back to the strongest person in the city was unthinkable to them, so hearing Lone do so truly insulted their beliefs.

"Explain," Prince Keining ordered.

"I want a fight to the death except, well, if I think I'm about to die, I'll let you know. Me hitting you five times and then not being hit by you once won't help me," Lone said.

Prince Keining frowned. "And being in a fight where you cannot even see what I am doing to you will help you?"

"Would you like to see something interesting?" Lone asked the man for his answer.

Still frowning, the XX-ranked waved his hand as if to say 'go on, entertain my people if you can'.

Lone extended his hand and withdrew his steamforged swordspear, the one Wilbur had forged specifically for his use. He closed his eyes for a moment and willed his weak C-ranker aura into the device, making a razor-sharp steam edge appear on one of its two blades.

He opened his eyes and carefully but swiftly chopped off two of his fingers, one after the other. With the strength of his bones, the steamforged swordspear was barely able to do the job even though Lone had gone for joints instead of raw bone.

Regardless, he quickly flexed his hand as it repaired itself in mere moments. "I am incredibly hard to kill despite my low rank when compared to you. Now, for the fun part."

Lone withdrew two full buckets of blood from his Dimensional Storage. "Blood Clone. Blood Clone. Do you know what this skill does, Prince Keining?"

What was bothering her more than the fact that there were about a dozen X-rankers present was that one, in particular, hadn't stopped staring at her since Princeling Kevin had escorted both her and the leech up to this area.

Sophie sighed when she saw the man walking towards her via her Mana Sensing. "Breena, enter our shadow and do not leave it until we say you may. We do not care if you run out of SP. Do not leave until we say you can. Understood?"

The girl meekly nodded and invoked her Primal skill, melding into Sophie's shadow, earning a few raised eyebrows and turning some attention away from the battle below.

Soph rotated on her heels and faced the handsome and tall X-ranker who was only a few metres from her at this point. "Do not approach us. Do not talk to us. Do not look at us any longer. We do not care for your rank, your status, or whatever else you may try to coerce us with. We have given our soul, heart, and body, to the man effortlessly enduring attacks from your ruler. You could never compare. Now leave us be."

The man's smile didn't change though his gaze did. He walked up to Sophie's side and looked down at the arena. "This Lone Immortus, yes? A foolish man if ever I have seen one. Not only does he stand to learn nothing from this exchange, but he has also revealed his potent self-healing and the potential of the skill he claims to have created himself. No doubt a lie. I would wager his master or someone else just as mysterious made it and allowed him to learn it. His supposed mastery of it is impressive if nothing else."

"That is our man you are speaking so poorly of. Do not insult him. Trying to besmirch him before us will earn you no favours. You are disgusting in our eyes and a nuisance, nothing more. Speak to me once more and we will make it impossible for you to do so to anyone in the future. We are not known for our mercy so do not take this kindness lightly," Sophie warned.

It was all too clear to her eyes. It was rare that her Mana Sensing let her detect a person's emotions through their magic unless the feelings were incredibly strong like with Lone's love for both her and Soph. Right now, however, this man's emotional intent was so clear she could almost reach out and grab it.

He valued her physical appearance to the extent that he wished to bed her regardless of the cost. A single word came to Sophie and Soph's mind at the same time.

'Pathetic.'

'Pathetic.'

For an X-ranker to be so obsessed with physical beauty to the point of lusting after another man's woman could only be considered as such for the two women. At grand heights of power such as his, surely there were countless other better things to be doing with one's time than this.

He shifted his body to turn in her direction and slowly reached out a hand as if to caress her hair. "I have never been threatened by a C-ranker bef-"

"Barrier Prison." His amused tone was cut off in an instant. "It was not a threat, it was a kindness offered and quite clearly rejected."

Sophie felt the man immediately trying to get out of her Barrier Prison so she took a page from Lone's book and covered him in a second one. She then created thousands upon thousands of barriers within the man's body. There was a moment of resistance before every part of his body turned into a bloody mist.

Shocked gasps and cries of fear rang out from several of the other V.I.P.s. Many even drew their weapons, as if expecting a widescale attack of some sort to come from Sophie.

'Um... what would you have done if that hadn't worked?' Soph asked.

Sophie mentally snorted. 'We would have teleported him to space and then returned fast enough to not take any injuries ourself. Your barriers can rip Lone to pieces, let alone an X-ranker with none of his resistances. Do not needlessly worry.'

'... Lone isn't going to like this,' Soph commented.

Sophie shook her head. 'We disagree. We dealt with a pest trying to claim what was not his to claim.'

'Not that, you killed an X-ranker before he did. He's gonna be so moody for days now...' Soph elaborated.

Sophie frowned. 'Ah. You are right. Damn it. Ha-ah. Well, one thing at a time. Let us first restore calm and order to this jumpy group of supposedly powerful beings. We can deal with Lone later. Luckily, he's busy right now.'

'Don't forget to tell Breena she can come out now! The poor girl doesn't have enough SP to use her Primal skill for that long,' Soph reminded.

'Yes, yes,' Sophie replied dismissively.