Pov. Judith
"Sure but just a word of warning, these hands are gender-neutral," he said.
"Like that matters, as long as you're human you will always be weak," I said.
"Judith I know how you feel about humans but I would advise you to take him seriously. He is strong than he lets on," said Ingrid.
"Don't worry Ingrid, after all, he is only human."
Even though I said that I would be a fool to not take my friend's words into account. If Ingrid believes he is strong then he wouldn't be weak no matter how he presents himself. Look at him he seems to not have a care in the world, he shows me many openings but they are most likely to draw me into attacking.
"Human, I will allow you to hit me once to make it far," I said with a sneer on my face.
"Judith," Ingrid whispers.
He just looked in my direction before smiling.
"If you insist," he said as he quickly approached me without a weapon.
'Probably the type that fights with his hands.'
As soon as he enters my reach I send a quick but powerful stab with the tip of my halberd. But as the tip neared him he did some strange movement with his hands that seemed to redirect the blow away from him. The strength of the blow cracked the ground until it hit the bearer, as I'm surprised but what just happened I see him put both his hands on my halberds shaft before pushing it back.
Because of that, the end of the shaft hit me in the stomach knocking the air out of me and sending me flying back. What stopped me was colliding with the bearer causing intense pain. Looking up at him I see him smiling as he walks toward me.
"Good strategy, pretending to look down on me while taking me seriously and drawing me in to attack. Unfortunately, it's a common strategy in a war that has even been used by me," he said.
As I get up while taking some deep breaths and try to stabilize myself.
"Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit a lady?" I said with some difficulty.
"No she didn't, she wasn't the best mother but she did teach me one thing. Never pull your punches whether it's a man, woman, old, young, or loved ones. Because if you do, you may be the one dieing to them."
"That's a pretty sad life to live."
"Maybe, but it's foolish to not do anything when you see signs of treachery. Even if it's from your own family because that can lead to even more pain for you and those around you."
"Now you got me wondering what kind of life you lived to come up with those ideals."
As I had enough time to catch my breath I swung my halberd causing a slash of black hellfire to be sent towards him. As he dodged under him I jumped towards him bringing the ax part of my halberd down on him.
Suddenly my halberd stopped before it reached him, when I tried to pull it back I couldn't. As I tried to see what was going on I saw strings due to the light reflecting off them when I looked at it closer.
"You need to keep an eye on your surroundings," he said as he sent a kick toward me.
Taking a step forward and trying with the best I could to use the shaft as a shield. Unfortunately when his kick connected it broke the shaft and continued to me. I quickly used both of my hands to block, unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to put up a solid defense.
So I was sent flying again but this time I sent a blast of black hell flames towards him as well. Again I hit the bearer hard but this time I looked up at him with a smile on my face only to be shocked at what I saw.
There he was in the middle of the black flames without a single burn mark on him. Forget the burn marks there wasn't even a scratch or dirt on his clothes, all while he continued to smile. As I looked over at Ingrid I saw a shocked look on her face.
"Looks like it's my win," he said.
"It's not over yet," I said as I tried to stand up only to find out I couldn't.
"As I said before, keep an eye on your surroundings."
Looking around me I see the light reflecting off strings tangling me up.
"Well then I'll send you information about what I want you to do when the time is right," he said as he left.
"I told you he was strong," said Ingrid as she walked to see what she could do to help me.
But as soon as he left the strings around me and my halberd disappeared causing it to fall on the ground and allowing me to move again.
"Yes you were right but what was that power at the end. Hellfire is supposed to burn everything, even things with no physical form?" I asked.
"Don't know, never really seen him fight. Though I felt his power a couple of times so all I knew was he was strong. But it looks like we will be working together until this is all over," she said with a smile.
"Yes, we will, just like old times. I still hope you will reconsider coming back to Dark World again after this."
"We've talked about this. I don't believe the nobles are worth serving anymore. Not as long as the true ruler of Dark World's whereabouts remains hidden."
"Ingrid she's been gone for over 100 years there's no way she's coming back. Someone as strong as her can't be forced to do anything so that means she left of her own free will. If you come back we can work together to turn Dark World around and help the people thrive again."
"As long as Astaroth is in charge of the other 9 families then Dark World would never change."
"Ingrid, so what will you do after we kill Edwin?"
"I don't know but I would like to still help the demons that live in this world."
"Are you going to stay with that man, what was his name again?"
"Qin Shi Huang, and that is not a bad choice. He doesn't seem to care whether there are humans or demons, he treats them all equally."
"It doesn't seem to care that I was a woman as well. The hits that connected still hurt," I said while holding my side where he hit me with the shaft of my own weapon.
"No he does not but that's not necessarily a bad thing."
In the world we live in no it is not but Qin huh I'll remember that.