The fourth lady—Arness— with her glowing purple eyes glided down the slope, in a crouching stance towards him, who used a hand to balance himself as he glided down the slope, facing her.
She raised her hands towards the hilts on her back and unsheathed two sabers. The sabers were short, with curved hits and curved back-edged blades with cryptic engravings on their surface.
She dashed down towards him and kneed his jaw, she was fast and the darkness provided by the night seem to amplify that as her figure seemed to warp in and out of the darkness.
He lost his balance and fell backward. Arness sat on top of him with her saber sheathed behind her and used his body as a platform to slide downward, with her hands clutching his head and crumbling rocks that proved to be obstacles with it.
Their eyes met at that moment. His serpentine eyes dilated in amusement, while her glowing purple eyes were full of mischief, she even had a smile on her face.
Smiling, he removed her hands from his face and threw her off him, but as if they were glued together by an external force, she held his wrist to which she was being pulled and used the motion to throw Conan off down the slope.
Conan flipped and twisted his body midair to regain his balance and landed on a knee, sliding on the ground a bit before coming to a halt.
Arness also reached the bottom of the slope and faced him, she unsheathed her twin sabers and walked towards him with supple steps.
"... I'm Arness."Her breathy and drunken voice came out before she dashed at him with agile steps. Not giving him time to reply.
She brandished her bendy sabers, raining slashes on Conan who swerved to evade all strikes. She slashed towards his neck, an arch of sliver trailing the saber as it inched closer to his neck, threatening to decapacitate him.
He bent and evaded the strike but couldn't do the same to the knee that struck his jaw, promoting him to straighten up and the round-house kick that followed to his cheek by Arness, making him stumble towards a tree.
She was strong. As an Incarnation of a goddess should be. But still, she wasn't much of a fighter, that he could tell. She was an Estrie after all.
And she wasn't going all out, or else the mess they would have wrought would bring unnecessary attention as he would play along, bringing himself to his opponent's level.
At the moment, a drawn-out fight is what he wanted.
He caressed his jaw which was now a little sore, and spoke with a smile "I'm Conan..."
He created two Ice spears and skillfully brandished them as he dashed toward the woman who met his advance head-on and clashed with him.
As her sabers clashed with Conan's short spears, they made misty waves but the spears never cracked and even clanged like real weapons.
Conan turned aggressive as he started thrusting and parrying rapidly at the vixen, changing his grips on the shafts ever frequently, he threatened to pierce vital spots on the Arness's body, making her occupied with defending against his barrage which carried the force of a raging gust.
As he bombarded her with thrusts, he brushed one of her legs off the ground, throwing her off balance, and kicked her in the stomach, pushing her away before she could fall.
The air was knocked out of her lungs. It felt like two kicks landed on the same spot, threatening to crush her innards She rolled on the floor before balancing herself and stopped on a knee, she raised the sabers and crossed them across each other.
"...Canon?"
She slashed the sabers in a cross-motion and sent a cross-slash made up of dark attributed spiritual energy towards Conan who did the same with his ice spears, sending a cross-slash of pressurized water towards her.
The slashes clashed and neutralized each other, the energy wave destroying trees, causing booming noises to resound within the still dark of the forest.
As soon as the collision ended, they dashed toward each other again. Arness leaped and raised a flying kick towards Conan like a bolt, to which Conan nimbly slid under her, making her pass above him.
An uprise of dust followed his movements. She looked down at him as he slid under her, and he looked back. Her purple eyes were like gems picked from the deepest parts of the nether plane.
Going with the motion, Arness pushed herself in the opposite direction as she landed. Using the motion to face Conan who had also leaped towards her, she raised her sabers as ripples of darkness attributed to spiritual energy pulsed on its surface.
"...It's Conan."
But Conan was faster, he spun, and his leg supply whipped forth, planting a kick on Arness's chest and a dull thud sounded. She was hurled off against a tree that bent on impact.
She rose from the ground and sheathed her sabers. She palmed her chest and drank liquor from a gourd that was strapped to her waist. She took huge unwomanly gulps with ferocious voracity under Conan's amused gaze.
She tossed the gourd away and walked in a swerving motion toward Conan. Drunken, she swerved and fell off into a dark hole that Conan didn't even know was there before. He even chuckled a bit but on seeing the hole close up, he knew something was wrong.
He turned around and immediately Arness leaped on him and wrapped her legs around his torso and her arms around his neck and her lips colliding with his.
Conan felt a suction force in him and he pushed the Lady off of him but to little avail. It was as though something higher had joined them together.
His mind blurred for a second and a not-so-pleasant taste invaded his senses as his blood was sucked by Arness from his heart, directly from his bloodline vessels.
After she was done, she backflipped off using his chest as a platform, making his steps falter a little.
A faint crimson glow appeared on her facial muscles and coursed towards her chest, to be precise, her heart. She breathed out sharply after the glow subsided.
Her sleepy but glowing purple eyes stayed on Conan who stood stunned and was wiping his mouth for a moment.
It all happened so fast. And he couldn't even push her off before it ended. Made him wonder if Arness was perhaps a goddess in mortal form.
"... We'll meet."She turned on her heels "....Girls!"She called, her voice echoing in the forest. She turned around and walked away seemingly becoming one with the darkness but not before throwing an object toward Conan.
Conan caught the object in his hand. He checked and realized that it was a token, made up of dark metallic material with an etching of an Estrie with long hair that formed wings on it.
"Estries..."Conan muttered, his serpentine eyes dazed for a moment before regaining clarity. Even though he was a celestial, he never associated with gods, Except for a selected few.
Suffice it to say, he didn't recognize the goddess of her divinity.
He turned the medallion over and on its other end was the address of a location. Since he didn't know anywhere in the Kingdom yet, he kept it in his spatial ring for later.
The medallion was a sign of partnership, and soon, he'll meet her again. First, to know the benefits that'll come with their partnership and second, to check whether she'll evolve or not, given that she took his blood and assimilated it with hers immediately.
They both held back a lot during their fight and were looking forward to another battle with her.
"...Liam!"Awareness rammed him and he instantly went towards the young dragon, but it seemed that he'd lost his way.
Arness didn't ambush him by pushing down the slope alone but also managed to separate him from Liam by taking him across a large distance through the darkness.
He closed his eyes and focused on his hearing but his senses picked up nothing but footsteps rapidly approaching him.
He quickly covered his face with the mask of his form-shifting armor with a thought and soon, figures started showing up in front of him, about five of them, clad in black knight armor and cloaks.
Behind him were four people clad in shady, hooded mantles, expressing menacing intents.
And he was in the middle. It seemed the fight between Arness and her accomplices had caused more chaos than imagined.
Trees were destroyed and leaves were raining. His feet had already sunk in the abundance of leaves that filled the ground.
He silently and slowly, flew up to the sky using the air as an impetus to drive his body upwards. The figures approaching however didn't see him and both sides seemed to be enemies.
An oral fight seems to take place in the forest below him but turned deaf ears. He flew higher to the sky, hoping that nobody would spot his figure.
From above, he scanned the entire forest with his serpentine eyes. Seeing in auras, he searched for Liam's aura, but when he could find his faint signature from afar, something strong wrapped around his leg and pulled him downwards.
"Ugh... Damnation!"He cursed as he was being pulled towards the ground by an impressive strength, but he didn't intend to fall without giving them a present.
Disregarding the force pulling him, he converged the air around his body and hurtled himself toward the ground, and punched it.
His figure landed like a strike of lightning and a tremendous shock wave followed, hurling the ones at the forest floor away and causing frantic arousal of dust and leaves, coupled with the destruction of innocent trees.
...Utter chaos followed.
...
Back at the Duchy Tavern...
Kramdery Duchy was one of the most successful commercial duchies in the kingdom. Being close to The Great Wall is one of the most important factors, as materials from outside the kingdom—the tribal lands and even other realms—were always being transported through the Duchy, just like the other duchies that are close to The Great Wall gates.
The Duchy thrived with merchants, brokers, and dealers. The location and commerce system made it a gold mine for the aforementioned.
For this reason, An auction house was located here and it was always held at midnight on the first day of every month.
It was a secret auction house, for only the merchants. Auction houses like this were also present in other Duchies. The only auction house that everyone had knowledge of existed in the capital and was accessible only to nobles and Disciples.
Merchants and business-oriented people frequent this auction in kramdery duchy. The products auctioned are always high quality. The setting is extravagant, everything set richly for the rich to feel rich as the auction commence.
With masks on, the three "babies" walked into the auction hall, under the cloudy gazes of the possessed bodyguards.
Their guises were Zoe posed as a rich lady. Her form-shifting armor took the form of a lavish off-shoulder gown with layers of flays and a wooden mask on her face. She had the apparel of a noble, except that she wasn't.
Kitty however didn't have form-shifting armor and therefore became the mercenary bodyguard. Her face masked as she trailed Zoe's steps.
Grumpily, Zoe clumsily walked like a "noble" or at least how someone of a mid-class family should walk, playing the role given to her by kitty.
Loki however was nowhere to be found. He had blended with the crowd. Spying from the darkness on the suspicious people Kitty had spotted earlier before they came in.
Zoe strode along the aisle with neatly sequenced rows of chairs on each side, all facing an empty, but lavishly decorated stage. She fanned herself with a spade-shaped token with the number '65' on it.
Zoe was nervous, but she displayed stoicism that masked her nervousness coupled with the mask.
The Auction Hall was dimly lit. People murmured to one another as they sat in wait for the auction to commence.
Kitty stood behind her as a bodyguard should. Zoe's figure attracted the attention of the attendance. The same could be said for kitty, her arresting rear instilled wonder in the hearts of men with its ampleness.
Both of them had never felt so uncomfortable, yet they maintained composure as though they were on a mission.
But they were just "exploring"...
Soon, the auction started but will it go as peacefully as it had seemed before it started at all? Well, that'll be known when the veil of peace is yanked off.