Chapter 216 - Playing Dirty

After the two groups separated, they focused on ensuring their members got back to closer to their optimal state. For Jien's team this had more to do with resting and accumulating mana where they had burnt it throughout the match. Jien, though his current mana capacity was large for most his age, like his previous party member's, had used quite a large amount of mana. He had not only used his Combat Library ability, on top of self-puppeteering and several spells from providing covert communications to providing Julie with the boost. Combined with his prior use of several of the same abilities this morning he was running a bit low.On the other hand, Andrew was on his last legs in terms of mana capacity and Jien knew it based on the boy sweating profusely, his skin looking clammy and his eyes a bit dull as if he was spacing out. The boy had been healing others along the way throughout the day thus far and a short lunch was far too little time to get back what he was spending. There was no way to quicken the recovery of mana that they knew of either, a problem that plagued everyone. So, with Jien's orders they all sat at the edge of the arena to rest and spend some time to try and recover what they could. At least that was supposed to be the case.Bennet stormed down the stone stair like seats with gritted teeth, moving directly toward Julie and ignoring the others. He was soon staring down at a seated Julie with eyes full of rage meeting her cool gaze. "I lost all my money because of you." the tall boy almost spat the words. "I won't be satisfied until I wring every copper piece out of you as repayment." He seemed so upset that he could draw his axe at any moment and attack them despite the fact that they had not agreed to anything.The response he received brought his face to the point of turning purple in anger. Julie looked up at him with a smirk on her lips as she stared him in the eyes and stated with no small amount of sarcasm. "That's such a shame. Perhaps you should have kept from betting if you can't keep from going all in." Her words were like knives in the boy's guts and even her own unit members flinched at the unusual amount of venom in her words.Bennet's face contorted in rage and his eyes seemed to spit fire as he clenched his fist around the handle of his axe hard enough to cause the wood to whine as if about to shatter. He spat his next words as if he was trying to cut the girl sitting in front of him with them alone. "I bet you can't beat myself and my unit right here and now. If you think you can then I dare you to put all your money behind it. Or are you a coward?"Thos that were listening seemed to hold their breath, unsure about how Julie would react. Based on what her own unit members had learned of their teammate she was sometimes quick to anger, very competitive but also very good at combat. The trouble was that after a morning of hard training and a match against Carmichael's unit, taking another match so quickly would be tough. Some were more rested than others, but it was their unit would likely struggle against the bandit unit.Julie sneered at the challenge. "And why should I accept the challenge of someone I beat without even putting much effort into fighting." It felt to everyone that her prior victory had led her to believe that the boy likely couldn't compete with her. However, unlike they thought would happen, the tall boy didn't erupt or lash out at the tanned spear wielder, instead relaxing his hold on his weapon and responding with a smirk of his own. "I see, so that is as far as you and your unit go. One match where you crush the opposition and then you shy away from a real challenge out of fear."This conversation had been loud enough for all parties to hear, and the unit of one-armed swordsmen had overheard the conversation with ease, their calm expressions turning stormy at the statement. It was as if the tall bandit was calling them pushovers and they wanted to challenge him to prove him wrong. One glance at Carmichael shaking his head led them to drop the thought however. The leader of their unit wanted to see what would happen here. Would Jien and his unit accept the challenge or would they bow out and let the other walk all over them.They were rather surprised when the answer that did arrive wasn't from Julie at all. It came from Rosalind as she stepped between the two of them. "Sure, we can take you up on your challenge but what will you place against our wealth? How about you and your unit members act as our errand runners for the first term?"