The Crowd around the arena was large as I moved through it. I knew that Francis was looking forward to another fight, but my head was seething in anger. I was hoping for some good subordinates that I could control moving forward. Barring that, I was expecting some spies from my siblings.
This was the worst-case scenario for me, and this was something I knew the council didn't arrange but my father. I did not know my father's problem with me was, but he was an incompetent leader in my mind. His utter lack of care towards society's lower echelons was flabbergasting to me as someone who came from modern society.
I understood that I was no longer in a democracy, but the entire backward style of council ruling with kingship in a fucking tribal system pissed me off. Our nation's political power was all over the place, with the military's power spread all over too. This will only become more prevalent in the upcoming war.
Higher-ups or kids with no experience in the military would most likely be put in charge of strategy. This is something that the empire would not have a problem with. In comparison, we would be suffering from someone put in control that might not exactly understand what they were doing. Or even worse, think they know what they are doing without having any experience.
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. I wanted to take over and change these things. Our country's inefficiency with its remarkably poor distribution of power was what allowed our citizens to be kidnapped as slaves for such a long time.
Finally, as I was fuming in my thoughts, I heard Francis chuckling, forcing me to look up. I saw his devilishly handsome face with a giant smirk on it. "You look angry, Ambassador," Francis said.
"Shut up," I heard myself say. My anger taking over my actions, and Francis's face showed surprise. "In the arena now, I need to vent." I finished, and without any more words exchanged, we entered into the coliseum. There was a fight just ending with a Succubus woman beating the shit out of an Incubus about cheating. This would have had me laughing hours before. Now I was angry and couldn't care less as they left with the succubus dragging out her pulverized ex-boyfriend or whatever status towards the medical area.
My feet landed inside the arena with Francis right afterward. Our mana being made known as we got ready to battle. Francis walked across the arena meaninglessly before turning to me. "Ready little;e bunny?" He taunted with a large smile.
I returned the smile with one of my own. I felt no need to return with words, and I started to exercise my mana pool. I fell through a rift into the sky and high up into the air. I was hundreds of meters up in the air and let myself fall. I looked down, using mana to stop the wind in my eyes. Francis seemed to be confused about where I was.
I started to reach the velocity that I wanted, and I powered my limbs with my robust mana. My hair flew as I entered into a new rift. I appeared behind Francis to his surprise with my foot falling upon his head. He received with his arm suddenly appearing above him and my bones groaning under the strain. My mana powered through, and I heard him grunt. My other leg lashed out, hitting him solidly on the back of his head before I rifted beside him as he retaliated.
My fist landed on his jaw as he turned, and I rifted out again. The fight had just started, and I was rifting out and attacking him quickly using the sudden velocity from my fall before rifting into the air to regain it. Francis seemed to yell out something as I fell from the sky again to regain velocity. Rifting up into the sky again was a necessity. I wasn't strong enough to hurt him through his large muscle mass and his reflexes. In the previous fight, I had to use surprise even to land a hit on him.
Still, since my initial hit on Francis, I noticed him protecting the arm my initial blow landed on him. I knew I had done damage that couldn't be done since his body was resistant to outside mana. I continued to plan my next execution as I fell from the sky, and a portal opened up again.
With the renewed velocity, I attacked Francis making the same arm as the first time he defended his face from my foot. Francis seemed suprised at my abrupt arrival but was more ready this time, and his other fist arrived within milliseconds towards my face. I anticipated this attack, and I was already leaning back, forcing his fist to brush just past my nose as I entered another rift.
My body was in a backflip position as I came out in the sky to finish my dodge and rifted right back in front of him. My foot came out, landing square on his chin, sending him into a daze as I fell into a rift sending me back into the sky. My body flipped in the sky several times before I used the wind to right myself. My velocity increased, and I rifted myself back into the fight. My angle forced him to use his damaged arm to block yet another kick.
A loud crack thundered from his heavily muscled arm as I rifted to the other side of his body. His arm found me and hit me in the center of mass. I flew out from the center of the hit, and I rifted out. Francis became suprised as I used rifts to turn myself around, and both feet planted in a direct hit to his face. This time I felt something crunch under my feet as I felt his body fall as I blew past him at a much slower speed. I landed on the ground and assessed the damage I managed to deal as I jumped towards him. I knew I did the damage with the fresh blood I saw dripping from his face, but I knew not enough as Francis was already back on his feet as I neared.
Francis smiled his sharp toothy grin that showed excitement over taking damage. At the end of the day, I was fighting Francis on his home ground in combat. I needed something more to take him out of the fight.
"That was good, Ambassador. You have even more respect from me." As Francis acknowledged the damage done to his body, "You are learning more about your void craft despite living in that Embassy of yours," Francis noted.
"The Embassy might stifle my ability to train every day," I acknowledged, "But it hasn't destroyed my ability to think about different ways to deal with you, Francis," I told him truthfully.
"Nice to know your thinking about me," Francis taunted back.
I snorted, and I fell into a rift I created, signifying the resume of the fight. My body fell into the sky, and I felt the wind between my legs, and I smiled, feeling great about the combat. I thought about that extra to fight Francis, and I decided to try something new out. The last time I fought with him, the Void didn't cut into him, but what if I used my legs as the sword—forcing it harder down upon his body with my own strength.
The idea intrigued me, and I opened a rift below me, sending my body in a double kick like I hit him with last time. Francis was ready, and he jumped, intercepting my feet with his knee, and my momentum was stopped before his fist was nearing my legs. Instead, I propelled myself off of his knee into a rift while twisting my body. His fist missed, and I was up in the air again. The wind through my fur felt amazing, and my frustrations were smaller than ever.
My blood was rushing as I knew that a mistake would severely damage me with Francis. My smile grew as I wanted to fight with him more, and I thought about how to execute my next moves. My grin enlarged, and I got ready. I opened a rift. My feet fell through it, and I manipulated the mana at my feet to create the edge of the rift. I separated reality to an edge that was something that I had theorized. Instead of sending it at him through my feet as a projectile, I used it as bladed shoes as I finally came entirely through my rift. I expended a lot of mana, and I felt my feet hit Francis. I looked to see Francis's arm blocking my feet from hitting his face.
A new development was there, though, as a large gash erupted underneath my feet as I jumped off of his arm as he tried to grab me. My agility was only making it through because of his surprise at the new gash.
Down where I landed, my hit was a cut deep into the muscle. I was suprised at the amount of damage or the lack of it with the Void cut that I placed on my feet. Francis was clearly suprised at the wound I left as well. This slowed down his reaction so that he didn't grab me in time.
Francis looked down at his wound then at me, his smile growing, "HAHAHA!" Francis laughed with mirth in tone. "Finally! A wizard I can fight with!" I felt a shiver down my spine as something changed in the way Francis looked at me.
Francis charged at me instead of me coming to him. I reacted by falling into a rift into the air as he almost caught my ears. I was startled as I was quite the distance away from him when I felt them brush by my fur. I realized, at this moment, Francis was finally taking me seriously. I took a breath as the air brushed my face, and I passed through a rift.
Francis reacted immediately to my exiting and dodged my attack. He no longer knew if I could damage him if I landed. As he dodged, he attacked me taking me by surprise. I used the wind to turn my body, forcing a miss with my mana, and countered his fist. I created a new void blade across my knuckles, and it landed on his wrist as I passed.
I felt give in the wrist as I felt my foot being grabbed. I gasped as I felt myself being pulled by his injured arm. He swung me up and threw me down. I smirked as he let go of my foot, and I charged through the rift sending me high into the sky. I quickly used wind magic to change my angle and fell through the rift again.
Soon began an exchange with Francis as we dodged each other with increasingly closer calls. Our pace increased, and we continued missing each other. Francis was becoming more adept at my increased speed from reaching near terminal velocity. I learned his pattern as we dodged each other. I then grinned and pulled out my arcane staff in the air. I sought to change the current circumstances that I was in.
Instead of appearing near him, I dropped from a distance above him, moving at breakneck speeds. I charged a Void cutting that was working well for my feet, and I sent it in before I then rifted in close range. I appeared in Francis's sight, and he reacted instantly and directly where I wanted him to. Just as I neared him, the experimental spell landed on his arm. Moving it from the position to be able to hurt me. The spell did very little damage, but his fist missed. I no longer needed to dodge, and my moment came.
My feet landed on his chest. My void-bladed feet punctured his chest, and I felt an eruption of blood come as Francis cursed under my feet as I sent him away from me. He gasped as I twirled, landing on my feet. I looked at him, seeing blood erupt from his barrel chest as I realized the amount of damage I dealt was fatal.
Medics moved in, as did I pulling out a Superior regeneration potion from my inventory. Francis coughed blood under the sudden eruption of damage to his lungs. His lungs wheezed as I knew I did catastrophic damage to him with the surprise attack. Gurgles of blood came out of his mouth as I neared him first and poured the potion into his mouth before sending it to get to work.
Francis's body went to work immediately under the potion's effect. Wounds closed quickly, and his lungs reimposed order as he coughed out large chunks of blood. With each cough, his breathing sounded better, and his other wounds closed just as quickly. I smiled, seeing my potions effects in person again after such a long time.
The medics reached him and pushed me to back off. I Finally heard the crowd's cheers with such a bloody battle that lasted as long as we did. I smiled, feeling much better too—the battle with Francis clearing my head of the anger.
Soon I heard a roar with a cough as the last of the blood came out. "FUCK!" He yelled, echoing out, powered by his mana. Francis was on his feet, and blood dripped from his mouth before he turned to me with a giant smile. "Shit, Ambassador Chelsea, You do not hold back!" Francis said with that sharp-toothed grin turning larger. "Yeah, almost killed me with that last hit!" He announced, coming over to me placing an arm on my shoulder to lead me out.
Around us, the Crowd continued to cheer and boo from the fight before the gambling offices started to pay out for some while others only turned away with sour expressions of lost gold. I cared little as we both stepped out of the gate of honor talking. I wasn't about to force Francis to go out with the medics, who looked confused about how Francis recovered so quickly.
"I guess I owe you for one of your amazing potions," Francis said.
"Nah, I needed a fight," I replied to him with a free grin. "The potion was on me for my frustrations. I am starting to get really good at creating them anyway."
Francis's grin became even larger with that. "Okay, but tell me, How did you move my wrist. My guard was perfect when it suddenly moved. I know you were using falling to increase your attacks too. So tell me!" Francis smirked as he repeatedly asked.
"Nah, A girl has to have her secrets," I told him with a grin of my own.
Francis didn't insist but made me promise him to fight in the near future. I took him up on the offer seeing new frustrations in my future.
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Announcement.
Due to oversight and me messing up. DOUBLE RELEASE! Go back a chapter and you get to read what I messed up on. Enjoy the double release that I absolutely planned on doing.