"It all comes down to this, huh?" Tristan sighed as the pressure of their situation weighed heavily on him. He was aware of their delicate situation, having to contend with a group of hostile sirens who had already demonstrated their ability to be fierce foes given that they were in their territory.
However, he was also aware of Lily and Lyla's reputation for not backing down from a challenge even while he had dueled against them. He was aware that they had a score to settle with the sirens, possibly due to losing him when he had tried swimming back ashore at the time, and that no one would get in their path.
"I hope you won't be distracted with Tristan dear, Lily," Lyla said with a smirk as she turned to face her sister. "Especially when we have more snowflakes falling as they should."
'So they had murdered the siren I had spoken to. Haha! How adorable.' With a cocky grin, Tristan thought.
Lyla looked sideways at Tristan, who had an amused expression on his face and smirked mischievously. She said, completely turning to face her sister once again, "we'll have our fun with these cheap scales, right?"
Lily replied quietly but firmly, "you know damn well what we had to go through to get here because of these little pieces of shit, right?" her words caused her smirk to gradually fade until completely disappearing.
It appeared that witnessing the duel wasn't too far away now as he gazed up at the timer, which read eleven hours and three minutes.
He responded, his voice steady and at ease, "I guess I can let you two have some fun. You two are up to the task. We have dealt with worse previously."
While agreeing with each other, Lily and Lyla's eyes were firmly fixated on the sirens. They had previously shown themselves to be strong fighters, and they were not about to be intimidated by a bunch of aquatic creatures.
The twins moved with such grace and quickness that it was almost hypnotic to watch them go into action without any hesitation. Lily summoned a torrent of deadly accurate sharp jagged earth discs, hurling them at the sirens. While this was happening, Lyla conjured a strong wind gust that knocked the sirens off their perches and onto the ground below.
The two trespassers who had dared to challenge the sirens were the targets of their gaze as they hissed and snarled as they attempted to regain their footing. However, Lily and Lyla weren't finished yet. They kept on attacking in rapid succession, moving in perfect unison as they easily suppressed the sirens.
Tristan marveled as the twins displayed a little portion of their full potential, their motions fluid and accurate. Even though he knew they couldn't compete with his abilities and wit in a fight, he was nonetheless captivated by how protective they were of him even though he didn't need it. He constructed an ice chair for himself to sit on and got ready to wait it out as the sirens started to approach the twins once more.
But then, a peculiar thing took place. A siren leaped at him with extended, razor-sharp claws. Tristan reacted instinctively, creating and hurling a series of ice spears at the siren, a potent assault of freezing energy that enveloped the siren in a thick sheet of ice.
When he realized he had subconsciously smashed the frozen siren under his feet, "why the fuck did you try to attack a participant when I tried not to intervene?! Did I seem like an easy target to you?" he exclaimed in scorn, the hem of his pants dripping with blood.
'You have to be kidding me! Then, why didn't I murder that bitch?' Slowly approaching where the twins were engaged in dueling, he cleaned his bloodstained boots on the scattered lifeless bodies.
Tristan's strange demonstration of power temporarily surprised the other sirens, who took steps back. Lily and Lyla exchanged surprised glances as they pondered Tristan's plans for the three surviving members of their adversary's force. They executed a couple of backflips and softly landed next to Tristan's approaching figure so that he might carry out the homicidal purpose they could sense seething off of him.
More than ever before, there was tension between them, especially after Tristan silently passed the twins without glancing at them and then stopped within reach of the sirens.
Tristan stated coolly, gazing directly ahead at the three sirens. "You know, I actually thought in here I wouldn't have to kill anything that could be fucked with anymore." There was no question or ambiguity as to whether he meant those statements literally since the sole sound that filled the space emanated from his mouth.
Tristan was approached by one of the sirens who was attempting to pacify and allure him. She gently reached out to touch his chest.
The earth shook as Lyla whispered, "a little bit of patience, Lily, watch," into Lily's ear, trying to calm her sister's fury which grew with each passing second as they silently watched the interaction.
The siren felt a powerful aura surround her, forcing her to quickly retract her arm lest she dies immediately upon touching Tristan's skin. Her hand halted abruptly halfway through the motion.
While she was momentarily preoccupied, another siren charged him, swinging her water-created scimitar fiercely at Tristan in a subconscious attempt to defend themselves from a threat in the person of a participant they had been ordered not to harm. But as quickly as she swung, her sword chipped under Tristan's neck, and she froze mid-swing.
'Sigh! pathetic efforts by an out-of-water creature.'
However, Lily pulled a quick one on the terrain of the third siren, attempting to run away, and her legs gave out from under her, causing her to fall flat on her ass. Tristan froze their feet, keeping the pair immobile and fixed to the spot.
With his hair pulled back from his face by his palm, Tristan glared down at them while flashing his pearly whites and wearing a sadistic grin. Clearly devastated by Tristan's excitement, the sirens sobbed and cowered.
'You two are excluded from being subject to the participant's binding rule, lucky me!'
"It is very rare for me to spend days without killing someone and not crave the scent of blood or its mark," Tristan stated, letting out a maniacal chuckle. "You see, I was doing my best to keep my clothes tidy and spotless during this ridiculous process of navigating the ice maze. But you two and those ummm..." He looked behind him and smiled, bringing his attention back to the sirens, then continued, "...fallen beauties had to go and sabotage that. You should understand my desire to wear clean clothes all day, right?"
Fear could be seen on the sirens' features as they exchanged glances. They were conscious of their predicament. They failed to recognize Tristan's potential because they were so preoccupied with trying to eliminate Lily and Lyla.
"So, who's going first?" Tristan asked while grinning and rubbing his hands together. "I will not hold back in the presence of anyone, not even ladies, I swear."
*****
A/N
¶ What sort of vibes is Tristan giving?
¶ Do you think these sirens would escape this?
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