Ara opened the door back into their shared room. "Hey, that strange feeling went away. Did you...." She stopped as she spotted a shirtless Sael with his wings out pulling back from kissing Beth sprawled on the bed. "What are you doing? If that is all you were going to do to make him feel better I could have done that!"
Beth sat up to scowl at the others entering the room still fully dressed. "We just finished having a heart to heart talk. We WERE going to do something else but you had to interrupt!" She watched him furl his wings back into his body and cursed that she hadn't gotten to even touch them. 'Damn it I finally got up the nerve to ask him too…'
"Do you feel better, my king?" Nee asked while holding onto the collar of Silver's shirt to keep her from pouncing on him.
Shaking his head he moved over to pull them all into a hug. "Yeah. Sorry about making you worry." Ara's tantrum was stopped instantly while Silver broke into a deep purr, Nee just enjoyed the embrace.
"Ok, now that all the mushy crap is done with. How about we get something to eat… I'm actually starving for some reason. Oh and we need to get our money." his face lit up with excitement at the thought of the money.
While the rest seemed happy enough Beth let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine…." though she mumbled some choice phrases under her breath.
During the rest of the day no one else mentioned the events of the last fight other than the fact that he won. Instead they ate a great lunch together, even if half the meal was spent still trying to get Silver to use utensils instead of just diving face first into the food. Gree came out to close out both their loan and their payout all at once. The odd little imp gave him a tiny business card that grew to normal size and looked exactly like something he'd have expected on earth. When he asked Gree if he'd ever been to earth the little imp just gave him a grin before leaving.
Before they knew it the sun was setting and the group returned to the inn for the evening. "Ugh, staying in an inn is worse than the barracks in Little Well. We NEED to get a place where we can all have some privacy." Beth huffed out unusually agitated even for the snarky girl.
"There is still your castle." Nee pointed out when Sael nodded feeling cramped sitting on a twin bed with an Ara on one side and a Silver on the other crowding him.
"Oh that is right. What do we need to do to get it fixed so it flies around like the Summer one again?" Sael asked ignoring Silver who was making mewling sounds of annoyance that he'd unequipped his silvery sleeves and refused to put them back on.
"You should just have to sit on the throne. That is what mom does. It will charge up with your mana. If you have enough of course." Ara supplied.
"He has enough." Nee nodded her tone confident.
"Shit I just remembered. We were supposed to watch Dego's fight….I feel bad about leaving him hanging." Sael groaned feeling bad about missing the next bracket's fights. He'd originally planned to go support Dego and scout out what the higher level fighters could do. He was pretty sure Beth mumbled something along the lines of "Sure worry about leaving the dork hanging but not me…" but she refused to repeat herself when he asked, looking embarrassed.
"Oh well, I guess I'll apologize when I see him next. I still have to do the exhibition match tomorrow and pick up my prize. I apparently have to fight against the Adventurer's Guild Master. I wonder how strong they are?"
**********
"I'm sorry I missed your matches!" Sael blurted out the next morning when they spotted Dego at the arena.
"Ugh, I'm glad you didn't see it. I lost so bad." Dego barely moped for a moment before perking up. "But that's ok. I'll do better next time… and I got my class changed! You are looking at the mightiest Phalanx in all of Amalur." Dego puffed out his chest.
"Phalanx as in a shield wall of fighters? Can one person be a Phalanx?" Sael asked, looking doubtful.
"Eh, it's just the class name. It combines a bunch of defensive shield techniques with spear ones. I get a ton of protector buffs too. Just call me the Main Tank! If you play your cards right I might let you DPS for the next raid I go on." Dego smirked
"Actually, I'd love to go on a raid! Let's talk about it after I get this over with. They said if I did well in the exhibition match I could get a bonus prize!" Sael grinned leading them into the Arena. Spotting a familiar face he led his group along when they waved back.
"Everyone, this is my new friend Dinn. He works at the adventurer guild, he really knows his stuff. Helped me pick out that new skill and everything." Grinning at Dinn he added. "After I get all my winning I hope you can help me pick out some more!"
"Dude! You know the Guild Master of the Adventurer's guild?" Dego blurted out making Dinn chuckle.
"Wait, what?" Sael glanced at Dinn who just kinda shrugged and nodded.
"You never asked. Plus I wanted to meet you in person. Hopefully things won't change and you'll feel like coming by again. It was a lot of fun helping you pick out your skill. Everyone is so stiff around me I rarely get to see someone so excited about learning one of our techniques." Dinn chuckled. "Oh and go easy on this old man during our match. I'd prefer not to end up like the last one!"
Sael swallowed his embarrassment. "Ya, I got a bit carried away…"
"Don't worry about it." Dinn slapped him on the back laughing as if the events of the last fight were truly nothing.
"Speaking of the fight. What do I get if I win exactly?" Sael switched topics.
"Oh you don't know? If you win, I'll teach you a special skill. One of my personal ones. But don't get your hopes up. I've never lost and to spice things up you will be facing two of us." Dinn's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Bah that doesn't seem fair…" Sael complained.
"Eh, you get double the prizes if you win." Before Dinn could even chuckle at his joke, Sael responded with an exuberant "Deal!"
**********
Sael waved to the cheering crowd. It seemed the events of yesterday's fight hadn't dampened the mood much if at all. Yet, when his opponents entered the arena though it practically shook with excitement and cheering. Dinn was wearing a set of ruby red colored scale mail with two curved blades at his hip. On his head was an open helmet with a long silvery trail coming out of the top that looked like flames but moved like cloth to drape down. Beside him was the tall dark skinned woman who'd done his last testing. Both hands were in the opposite sleeves of their deep purple robes while three basketball sized globes of liquid silver floated behind them. One over each shoulder and one above her head.
'So I was right and she was the guild master.' After meeting the twin's he'd suspected she might have been the guild master. He thought it was odd they were doing something as trivial as testing but after finding out about Dinn he suspected they were just trying to size him up.
"I must thank you for what you did yesterday. I do not know if your actions were on behalf of my granddaughter or not but I thank you nonetheless. But don't expect me to go easy on you." Sele gave a deep bow while Dinn was stretching.
"Man, I haven't been this excited about a fight in ages. Let's try and have some fun!" Dinn hopped a few times, very spry for his age.
Sael equipped his armor and summoned in his spear an action that made Dean's eyes light up with jealousy. "Damn Arrived, get all the good stuff."
As the moderator counted down the arena seemed to take and hold a collective breath. The moment he said Start! Dinn disappeared. Sael's combat awareness only warned him after the three deep slashes across his chest appeared. With a jolt of panic he yelled out "Hasten!" only then could he keep up with the crimson clad warrior as he circled in for a second attack. Metal rang out like a chime being played as Sael parried a flurry of attacks from the dual wielding Dinn. Launching a Meteoric Thrust to force the fighter away he couldn't even catch his breath before a pillar of silver slammed into him from behind too fast to dodge even while using Hasten.
Knocked forward he slammed into a silver wall that exploded out of the sand. The moment he impacted with it bands of metal snapped out to wrap around him. By a hair's breadth he managed to dodge Dinn's next attack as he tore free of the bindings to dive away. Thus the battle began with Dinn and Sele working in perfect unison. Each would attack the moment the opening was produced by the other and they worked in harmony to keep him off balance. Still, Dinn's ability that boosted his speed ended first giving Sael a slight advantage. But despite his greater speed neither of the two veterans gave him an inch. Their perfect teamwork kept him so off balance that he couldn't make use of the advantage as he'd have liked. And before he knew it his Hasten ability ended as well.
Neither side seemed to be able to make a decisive move. Sael's attacks against Dinn were parried expertly or dodged out right while liquid silver flowed around Sele producing a shield any time he attacked that not only stopped his attacks but reflected them back.
"Damn you two are annoying! Don't you think it is unfair for two high level people to pick on a newbie?" Sael shouted out as he forced Dinn back with another Metric Thrust before spinning around to use a Stone Breaker kick to destroy another silver pillar flying in on him.
"Bah, I'd listen to your complaint if you weren't keeping up with us!" Dinn grinned skidding to a stop near Sele.
'Finally! They got next to each other.' Sael grinned as the two guild masters stood near one another for the first time since the start of the fight. "GOTCHA!" He cried out stomping his foot as inky black walls erupted from the ground to encircle the duo while a huge ball of crimson fire sparked into existence right above them. Pouring all the mana he had left into the two abilities he brought the fireball down to cap the cylinder prison.
Sand melted and bubbled into a molten state around their new prison while he shouted out. "Better give up or you will be cooked!"
He barely got a moment to gloat before two crimson blades of light poked through his shadowy walls before rotating around cleaving all the walls in half. The bottom half of the walls melted down to retreat into the thin chain revealed to have been buried beneath the now molten sand. While the top half dissolved revealing a dome of silver holding back his huge fireball. Both guild masters were dripping sweat but otherwise unharmed. Dinn's blades of crimson light shrunk down to their original size looking once again just like two small curved swords.
"Well hell. I figured you'd survive but I didn't think it wouldn't do anything." Sael moved back into his ready stance as his fireball fizzled out.
"Damn I'm too old for this. You good Sele?" Dinn shook his head but was grinning as he spoke quietly to his partner.
"Sadly I'm out of mana now." She peered at the Twilight King using her unique ability to measure how much power he has left. "So is he but unlike you his physical strength hasn't waned at all. Unless you want to go all out I think this is as far as the fight goes." For a moment Dinn was tempted. He was old for an adventurer and well past his prime now. Still, every year he gave the younger generation a good beating just to keep them from getting a big head. This year though….
Sheathing his swords he waved to his surprised opponent. "Bah we throw in the towel. You can claim your win."
Sael didn't feel satisfied with the win but the crowd didn't seem to feel the same as the arena erupted with a deafening roar of cheer. "You two sure? You didn't have to hold back so much…"
Dinn burst out laughing. "Kid… the fact you think I was holding back makes my day. If I was twenty years younger though, I'd have mopped the floor with you! You earned this. Now be a good champion and wave to the crowd!"
Shaking his head Sael did just that making the crowd go even crazier.
Watching from a pool of shadow in the arena were eight unblinking eyes that never strayed from the Twilight King.