Chapter 2147

Chapter 2147

Blood pumped through her ears. Her body was hot. The massive, freshly finished stadium hummed with noise as the audience screamed out all their passions at the Hobfootie players struggling below.

Congratulations! Your Skill Vicious Strike (Un) has grown to Level 121!

Devick’s fist cracked into the ape’s jaw. Blood spurted out of its broken nose and it took a half step backward. Still, the bastard had about sixty pounds on her and wouldn’t go down easy; even after the grueling match so far, he remained unshakable. Her eyes flicked down to the Crusher held in his hands and weighed her options. Ultimately, she decided to risk it.Ssince the Miracles had seized the lead ten minutes into the Hobfootie match, the opposition became increasingly targeted at eliminating her, specifically.

Bah, let them try. Devick allowed the song of strife its sweet song in her blood. Instead of attempting to knock away the ball, she kicked the side of the ape’s knee and then brought her knee against his face. Any scrap of solid cartilage remaining in its nose shattered. Let’s make this glorious.

Across the field, Toll boomed the oblong ball up into the air with all his strength.

Another one of the opposition attempted to spear tackle her as she turned away, but Devick’s body reacted to the threat. She felt like she was dancing, swaying just beyond his reach and positioning herself in position to catch the ball and score. Before focusing upward, she glanced around and found the Arakis Beast crept closer, but was far enough away she didn’t need to worry about its sudden rush quite yet.

Still, the attention of the entire field seemed to be on her. She practically stood in a spotlight. The crowd’s cheers were for her.

The other crusher whipped past her, rustling her clothes. Behind her, the failed tackler had his lower back shattered by the projectile. She shot a bemused glance at the grim-faced Jawem. Even now, while they dominated the Hobfootie match, Jawem refused to actually enjoy the playing.

Privately, Devick believed he would be a much better player if he would just loosen up a little. He insisted on revealing his inherent unlikability.

She glanced upward. The oblong ball spun down toward her position. Yet at the last second, her instincts began to tingle with the thrill of danger. Like a suspicious spirit in the presence of a priest, she ghosted backward, the front of her uniform singed by a spurt of orange flames.

To her surprise, the broken-nosed ape hunched over with a singed palm extended in her direction. Devick thought she caught a flicker of lime green light from the ape’s eyes, but whatever illumination it might have been was smothered by the next blast of orange fire. Devick spun sideways out of the way and the ape growled.

It forced itself to its feet and pressed both palms together. A large amount of fire gathered in a massive ball in its palms. Devick’s lips twisted. Are you kidding me? How the hell do you have enough Mana for this?!?

Why did we have no information about a walking fireworks factory?

She skipped backward, positioning herself right under the oblong ball. The ape’s eyes blazed as he unleashed the firebomb. But rather than catching the oblong ball as it passed waist heigh, Devick whipped her leg around and kicked it. The sharp redirection shot the ball directly over the sizzling flames and knocked it against the bloody remnants of the ape’s face.

The blast sizzled past without hitting anything. Which was good, because you lost quite a bit of points if the ball was destroyed while in your possession.

Devick saw Jawem, who had walked some of the way down the raised bridge with the rest of the team but began loitering to listen in on their conversation, narrowing his eyes.

Devick raised a hand and fanned herself. She tried to display the due amount of concern one should have for the truth they were being targeted, but it was really hard to feel anything around the massive surge of delight she felt from this proof the Nether King had observed the match and worried about her safety. She tried to focus on that delight, and not the insistent eel, tightening around her windpipe. Raising a hand, she gracefully fanned herself with her fingers. “Truly, it is a curse to be this charismatic. Everyone wants a piece of Devick~”

She viciously strangled away a grin, but unfortunately, the left side of her mouth quirked up. Devick coughed lightly to hide the twitch and shot the Nether King a look of mounting worry and maidenly dread. Her acting, as always, was superb. “That is- I hope you aren’t attempting to insinuate that in a similar manner, I should allow you to puppet me. That simply-”

At the end of the bridge, Jawem twitched. Devick took a breath to swallow the insane and dangerous eagerness she had at the thought of her body wrapped in his solid power and spoke firmly.

“-cannot be even considered.” Her voice squeaked a little at the end. She admitted that perhaps her statement was as much for herself as it was for him.

The Nether King quirked an eyebrow at her in a manner that implied he had followed the entirety of her thought process and was bemused by the veering insanity he found there. To be so casually seen through set her aflame, made her hungry for more, for more proof of their connection, of their natural understanding.

Unfortunately, the Nether King was quite the tease. He spoke without touching upon that shared moment at all. “Just be on the lookout for another such instance. The Skill used was pretty interesting, but limited in that the user would only be able to activate Skills she has learned herself. Ah, that’s the other thing. Normally, I would have just taken care of the problem myself, but-” He grimaced. “...even I would hesitate to touch her, so long as it only seems like a diversion. Because you can handle a whole lot more than a fire-sneezing ape.”

Devick worshipfully- no, thankfully, she corrected herself- received the compliment. But she didn’t miss the small wince in his expression. Only a few individuals existed that would give the Nether King pause. From there, a name naturally unfolded.

“Larson Cerulean,” Devick said lightly. “She’s the one who did the puppeting.”

The Nether King nodded. “Just be careful. She seems like the type of bully that will escalate things. Honestly- well, my priorities have shifted a bit. If that conflict comes to a head, don’t endanger your life; I no longer need to maintain the popularity of the skyislands.”

With that and a small wave, the Nether King departed. Devick stood completely still, watching his departure. A tremor ran through her body as she walked back through the Nether King’s words.

He didn’t need her help any longer. His priorities changed.

All that joy in her chest became cloying, frigid suffocation. The long tongue of the frigid eel unrolled, smug and triumphant. However, she rewound the conversation and emphasized different parts of his statements. Larson Cerulean threatened her. The Nether King would rather she remain safe than continue to win the high seed for the Hobfootie tournament.

Between her safety, and likely happiness, and the point differential, happiness was more important.

Some of the warmth returned. Yes, this was a much more acceptable way of looking at things.

“You dumb bitch,” Devick said cheerily. She pivoted on her heel and skipped across the bridge, beginning to plot a suitable way to punish Larson. “Just when Hobfootie started to become a bit predictable... Hehe.”