Dark Fate: Book 2 – The First Night
: Chapter 16

Looking over to the rogue, I simply smiled. “Why don’t you set the rules, and I’ll set the wager? That way, neither of us can claim the other side cheated. Of course, I have no problem with whatever rules you create.”

Bill smirked as though he had won some kind of victory by getting me to agree to the duel, and letting him make the rules. “The rules are you can’t use your slaves, and you can’t cast magic! And the fight is to the death!”

I nodded. “I accept.” Now, Bill was smiling, as though he had already won. And, honestly, I could see where he was coming from. The idea that a warlock could stand up to a rogue without magic, even if I did have a couple levels on him, was insane, if you were talking the common sense of the world, even this new, post-Apocalypse world. Unfortunately for him, that common sense simply didn’t apply to me.

I took a breath, and met his eyes. “The wager will be that all the loser’s possessions, including slaves, are transferred to the winner. Further, the loser’s soul will be crystalized into a soul gem, preventing resurrection or reincarnation. Finally, once the soul is finally consumed or released from the soul gem, the loser shall retain all memories of his former lives for the next seven reincarnations, each of which shall be in the form of an animal.”

Bill shook his head. He probably thought I was trying to psyche him out with the insanely over the top wager. It was such an insane wager that anyone making it was either utterly certain of their success, or was betting on the other side chickening out. Of course, I really was utterly certain of my success, but Bill clearly thought it was a bluff, and he intended to call it, just as I hoped. “Mighty cocky, aren’t you? Don’t think that those extra couple levels are going to save you, punk! I accept!”

“[Quick Strike]! [Double Slash]!”

Bill didn’t waste any time. The moment the duel started, he was in motion, the twin daggers he’d had sheathed on his belt out and slashing at me. Which meant that, at level 2, he had spent two of his four skill points on combat skills, since [Dual-wielding] was a class ability. And he probably spent the others on [Stealth] and [Appraise Value].

It was a solid build, especially for someone who was only level 2. You could do a lot of damage very quickly to a single target with those skills. No doubt, he was expecting to take my health down substantially, even if he couldn’t kill me outright.

I simply stood there, and allowed him to hit me. The blade in his right hand slashed across my throat, while the one his left slashed twice across my stomach. It was a vicious combo, no doubt. On a normal human, even with the System, those wounds would be deadly unless they got some magical healing, and fast.

Therefore, the look on his face when all he did was cut a hole in my t-shirt, without even a hint of blood being drawn, was PRICELESS! After all, my Shadow Armor reduced all incoming damage by 1420. And, because of how the System worked, each strike of his blades counted as a separate attack, and so had the damage reduction applied to each separately. Just like the goblins, there was no way he could injure me, much less kill me, unless I let him.

“What the hell? You fucking cheater! What the fuck did you do?”

I smiled at Bill, which caused him to unleash another bunch of attacks, not using his skills this time. With my attributes, it looked like he was moving in slow motion. Lazily, I blocked the first four attacks with one hand, before grabbing his right arm on the fifth swing.

“Unfortunately, Billy boy, you should have done your research. Spent all your skill points on combat and stealth, didn’t you? Didn’t think something like using the [Analyze] or [Appraise Value] skills on me would be of any use, did you? But then, you never were the sharpest knife in the drawer, were you? Closer to the spoons, I’d bet.”

Bill growled at me, and tried to wrench his wrist from my grasp, but the look of anger on his face was replaced by shock when he discovered his hand didn’t move at all. Keeping his right hand locked in place with my right hand, I was able to control the way he moved. As he watched, I reached behind my back, and pulled out my bowie knife.

Using my iron grip on his wrist, I twisted Bill around, and he yelped in pain as I twisted his arm behind his back. He tried to throw an elbow, but that was just as effective as his knife. He tried to bring his foot up in an attempt to kick me in the balls. I was expecting something like that and was able to interpose my leg. I forced him to turn, until he was facing Rachel and the girls. I wanted her to see what happened to her former master.

Talia and Hibari were simply looking on with disinterest. The whole thing was playing out more or less as they expected it to. After all, they knew that I’d just taken down all those goblins single-handed. But Rachel? Well, she was as shocked as Bill was at how one-sided this was.

And it was one-sided. This wasn’t a duel. It wasn’t even a fight, or a brawl. This was simply bullying the weak, for no reason other than the fact that I could. After all, it wasn’t like Bill or Rachel could actually stop me.

Of course, things could get hectic if the neighbors came to investigate Bill screaming like a little bitch. So, I should probably end this, before it caused any more problems. Looking Rachel in the eye, I smiled, and then shifted into my true form, just to give her the full picture of what I was.

She gasped at the sight, whether it was from shock or awe, or maybe both. Didn’t matter, the point was that Bill turned to look, and damn near fainted at the sight. He had really thought I was just a mere human. That couldn’t have been further from the truth, which he now understood. Too late.

I jabbed my knife into the side of Bill’s throat, the tip of the blade emerging on the other side. With a vicious ripping motion, I pulled forward with the blade, and left him with his throat cut. I let go of his arm, only to grab him by the hair, and he desperately attempted to place pressure on his throat with both hands, any thoughts of fighting me long gone.

That one attack dealt 172 damage to the rogue. Not something to laugh at, considering he probably had between 600 and 800 HP total. However, the nature of the attack left a heavy bleed on him. If I remembered right, it was something like 50 HP per second, for 10 seconds. It was probably enough to kill him.

Probably wasn’t good enough, in this case. Bill may have been an idiot, but there was a chance he had a better CON than I thought he did. So, I reached around with the bowie knife, and plunged it into the man’s stomach, before pulling it across, spilling his intestines on the floor.

Still keeping my eyes locked on Rachel’s, I let go of the man’s hair, which was the only thing keeping him upright at that point, and Bill collapsed to the ground, his struggle to keep from bleeding out getting weaker by the second. I stepped over him, moving in front of Rachel, allowing my body, and my wings, to take up her entire view. It only took a few more seconds, before I got the notification.

The loot list continued on a looong way, since I’d basically inherited everything that Bill owned, thanks to the terms of the duel. There was a detailed list of all the items in the dungeon he’d mentioned earlier, which I thought would be useful. And I was sure that I’d get some fun out of the motorcycle, at some point.

Before I turned my attention to Rachel, I took a quick moment to check out the gear that Bill had had on him when he died. The Potion of Light Healing was a common item. It would heal the drinker for 0.5% of their maximum HP instantly, and another 1.5% of their maximum HP over the next three seconds, while also removing all Bleed effects. A useful potion, but not something that would be an instant recovery to full strength.

The leathers, well, basically just provided small bonuses to defense and armor. They didn’t actually count as armor, so the light and nimble types who weren’t proficient could use them with ease. I gave the greaves to Hibari, and the gloves to Talia. That way, both of them got something useful out of the deal. The daggers? Well, the daggers were barely any better than my bowie knife, doing a base of 5-15 damage, and adding the wielder’s strength. Basically useless, but I’d keep them around, in case the girls needed backup weapons at some point.

Finally, I looked at Rachel, who was trying her best to keep it together, but looked like she was torn between running away, screaming, needing to pick her jaw off the floor, or some combination of the three. I raised my hand, and grabbed her hair at the base, pulling her closer to me. It wasn’t an embrace of a lover, or anything like that, but rather something more aggressive, more possessive. It was an act designed to let a new slave know, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was truly owned, not just given a title by the System that made her obey the person the System said was her Master.

I looked into her wide eyes, and said, “You will address me as Master, Slave. Your little boyfriend may have thought he was powerful, but he was nothing. I will show you things you’ve never seen before, and, by my hand, I will mold you into a true pillar of strength. All to service me, and my needs. Do you understand?”

Slowly, she nodded. “Yes, Master.”

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