Dungeon Annihilation 2 - 21

Morning Everyone!

Louella

With Earle out of the picture, the tournament moved along without any more hiccups. I felt bad about it, but there was little I could do about it. At least he agreed to work for me. Sadly, he was happy with just some land. I pinched my leg at that thought. No! It was a good thing he agreed for just some land. I really must be losing my mind.

“Lady Louella?” marquis Valamar asked with a concerned look. “Are you under the weather?”

I gave a small smile. “I’m fine. Thank you for asking.” I should start keeping a tally of how many people asked if I was feeling alright. Counting marquis Valamar, it was up to seven people so far after the tournament officials joined us.

“I feel like the country has been too hard on dark users. Even taking those three out of the picture, the adventurer Noir is almost as strong.”

“Then maybe some good will come out of this tournament,” I said glad that the topic had changed.

Looking at the arena, Noir, an adventurer from Lecazar Empire was dominating her competition with her dark magic. She appeared to use a similar style to Earle in that the shadows bend to her will. The only saving grace was that she was not nearly as overpowering as he was.

Dark element users had started to be shunned by the kingdom and empire due to the number of them going to the necromancers. If people would step back, they would easily see that by shunning them they would only push them towards the enemy. When I was in the capital, I tried not to participate in the prejudice. It helped that I admired Noir as an adventurer.

“She will probably win, which is going to piss a few people off,” Ezal commented from behind me.

I crossed my arms in annoyance. Wasn’t this supposed to be my tournament? Even if it was in honor of the marquis, these people were pushing it. I grinned as I thought about raising the taxes on the annoying people. “We already pulled three people. I’m not pulling more. If Noir wins, then she’ll have earned it,” I said finally.

The evening progressed until, as expected, it came down to Noir and surprisingly Commander Yin. She had entered to show people that the Golden Dawn was not to be ignored. She turned out to be a light user of all things. I couldn’t help but feel that the situation was ironic. The two of them had seen the others' matches meaning it would be an interesting fight.

The two heavily armored women moved onto the stage and looked at each other. Even from here, I could tell there was a measure of respect for the other. They were both successful in the fields they had chosen. Noir drew her sword and it began to darken, while Yin did the same only hers began to glow.

With the signal to start, they charged at each other. As their swords collided, there were bursts of light and darkness. Their blows were heavy, both of them being more suited to the frontlines. One wrong move and they could find themselves seriously injured.

The exchange counted with neither of them giving ground at the center of the arena. I thought Noir took the advantage when a blade of shadow suddenly erupted from under Yin, but the commander was ready for it. A layer of light appeared and seemed to push the shadow back into the ground even before it finished appearing.

“They both are quite good,” Ezal muttered and I nodded in agreement.

The displays of magic grew more extreme as they both tried to one-up the other. The arena was quickly being reduced to rubble as they slammed into each other with their magic enhanced swords. I was impressed that the weapons could handle their mana.

The two of them jumped back at the same time and drew their shields in a few quick motions. I felt the battle was about to reach another level with the additional equipment added. Crouching with their shields ready, an aura of light wrapped around Yin while the opposite could almost be said for Noir, as the light dimmed in her vicinity.

The mana between the two of them started to grow volatile as they seemed to prepare for a final strike. I could almost feel their killing intent from the judge’s booth. I jumped when I felt it coming from behind me as well and twisted around. Raven was staring at the match with such intensity that her desire to join had washed over those in the booth. Her hands had near-death grips on her blades.

“Raven,” Ioa said in an even voice and the woman blinked coming back to herself.

She took a deep breath and released her weapons. “Sorry.”

We gave her another look before we turned back to the fight. Their mana appeared to hit their peak and they charged. The arena flagstones shattered with each of their steps. With each yelling a battle cry, they made their moves. There was an explosion as they struck that sent both of them flying across the stage. Blades of shadow and light tore out from their impact and hit the barriers on the edge of the arena, managing to crack them.

The audience held their breath as both women laid prone. If it wasn’t for the rising and falling of their chests, I would have thought they were dead. After close to a minute, Commander Yin slammed her fist down and managed to prop herself up. Even as she spat up a mouth full of blood, she got to her feet. A cheer went up as she was declared the winner and the priests rushed up onto the stage to help.

Marquis Valamar stood up, clapping once Noir regained consciousness. “That was an excellent battle. Truly you both are masters of the battlefield! Commander Yin. Congratulations!”

Ezal took the sword from the dungeon and the prize money and handed them to Commander Yin. She only took the sword and seemed to motion for Noir to take the money. Ezal looked up at us and after getting a shrug from marquis Valamar, I nodded for her to allow it. Another cheer went up as the two combatants shook hands.

Once the sunset, the tournament turned into a full-scale party. There were more rules in place so that the events of the last party didn’t take place, but people were still losing themselves to alcohol, food, and good times. I retired to my manor before it grew too out of hand since I’d rather not have to witness anything in the alleys again.

Working with Ezal, we found a good location for Earle and sent off Raven with the information. I made sure to include a letter to Thrad in case he wanted something good built. I wouldn’t foot the bill, but Thrad would make the construction a priority.

Sighing, I laid my head on the desk, flushed from the wine Ezal and I were drinking. No matter what I did, my thoughts kept going back to Earle. I’d never experienced this before.

“Mistress. That’s the tenth time you’ve sighed in the last two hours.”

“Who asked you to keep count?” I demanded not looking up at her. All I got was a laugh in reply. “I think I’ll retire for the night,” I said standing up, only to stumble against the desk. I guess I had indulged a bit more wine than I had thought.

~~

My head was killing me when I woke up the next morning. Thankfully, the finals for the team fights were later in the day. Trying to sit through a bunch of fights in the afternoon with a hangover would be murder as it was. Gripping my head, I made it into the dining room but was only able to partake of a few bites before I started to feel sick.

“Your morning is free if you’d like to sleep, mistress,” Ezal said as I tried to keep down the small amount of breakfast that I had managed to eat. The maids quickly cleared the table.

“While that is tempting, I think a walk would do me well.”

“I understand. I’ll notify the guards.” She bowed making her way out of the room.

This would probably the last time I would be able to just take a leisurely stroll through the town. Even if there were some guards. After the tournament, there would be several nobles coming to the valley. Some would be looking to exploit the town for their own gain, while others would either be trying to sabotage the town or the other nobles to maintain the value of their own holdings. Either way, I would be having headaches for completely different reasons.

The town was growing rapidly. Thrad had gotten more builders from the home branch and was putting them all to work. He was even more determined to show off his skills now that I allowed his clan to move here. If another dwarf clan found out about the mithril ore popping up in a dungeon mine of all things, I feared my valley might turn into a warzone as the dwarves all raced to claim the resource. The best way to avoid that was to have Thrad or another clan establish a firm hold over the resource before the news leaked.

Shaking the grim thoughts from my head, I took in the street we were walking down. There were at least four restaurants that had opened in the last week or two alone. Shops of all kinds that catered to adventurers and their families were popping up as well. We hadn’t been able to attract an enchanter yet, but with how much the town was growing. I felt it was only a matter of time.

The people were also in a jovial mood given the tournament and party of last night. More often than not, the person would have a smile while talking to the shopkeepers of street vendors. The dungeon wasn’t too liberal with the gold it gave out, but if the parties were able to deal with the goblins, then they were usually well off for starter level parties.

“Anything new from the dungeon?” I asked Ezal after thinking about it.

“A new wave of adventurers recently arrived on an airship from Lecazar. Cassie is implementing a two-day course for all new divers of the dungeon. That along with the increased party size requirement, I don’t think we had any deaths yesterday.”

“That’s good news. I know that is the risk of diving a dungeon, but I hate hearing that a party failed on the first couple of floors.”

We walked the streets, occasionally stopping at a stall or shop to inspect the wares. An hour passed relatively peacefully when I spotted a dark-haired elf moving towards us. Raven with an extremely bright smile approached us with a skip in her step.

“Lady Louella! I have come to report for my guard duty.”

“I see.” We hadn’t really settled on any of the details yet thus I wasn’t expecting her. “You appear to be in a good mood,” I commented as the elven woman started to hum as she moved next to Ezal.

“Quite so! Master gave me another job for later today and to say I am excited is an understatement.” She reached forward and grabbed my hands in a lot of energy. “And it's all thanks to you, my lady.”

“Me?” I asked surprised. “Why me?”

Her lips curved up. “S.e.c.r.e.t,” she purred taking a step back. I raised my eyebrow at the cheerful elf. What had I done to cause this?

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