249 Steps of Thunder
The squire of the Adventurers’ group was holding a shield in his right hand and a sword in his left hand. This shield was rectangular, had rounded edges, and seemed to be made of steel, one of the strongest materials used both for swords and shields and for armor, but this type of material was exclusively forged by master smiths, because its melting temperature is even higher than that of ordinary iron, which requires extreme care in handling.
This expensive equipment was not all that this squire had, because he was wearing armor with green details, and even the cap on his head had a metal part to protect him from blows.
Since this man was a bit confused by the speed of the half-dragon at the beginning of the battle, she knew that the faster she was, the less he would get in her way.
To continue the battle and get an opening to dispel the united group, and also to annoy them, she grabbed the archer by the collar and hurled him towards them. However, she was taken aback when instead of supporting the archer, the mage raised his staff high and conjured currents from another dimension, which pierced the chest of the unconscious man and headed towards the S-Class.
Alexis arched her eyebrows, confused. She had deduced that this was a group of friends, but the way the archer was treated by his own allies made it obvious that this was not the case. So she jumped back, aiming to experience how far those three chains with pointed ends could follow her.
To the half-dragon’s surprise, the chains managed to catch up with her in a second, forcing her to defend herself.
When one of the chains that moved on its own flew towards her face, she dodged, grabbing the chain with her arm, all while also dodging another chain, which almost grazed her. At that moment, she had an idea and grabbed the second chain, and then intertwined them, leaving them unguided.
Since there was only one chain left in the battle, the mage’s group did not let this support be in vain and ran towards the C-Class. This created an opening that Alexis had not expected, but desired.
Soon after noticing the onslaught of the four physical attack adventurers, she began to run towards them, closely followed by the remaining chain.
The Magician knew that if this last chain tried to attack the S-Class and she deflected, there was a good chance it would hit one of her allies who could still help her in an eventual victory. Therefore, he deactivated the skill to prepare to use another skill, and the current disappeared. This was a rather dumb decision, because the half-dragon was practically surrounded before, and now she was free to move much more freely.
The crowd went wild once again when they saw that the clash between the S-Class and four of the adventurers was imminent.
When they finally approached, Alexis demonstrated why she had been considered a prodigious student at the University of Oukiwa. She dodged all the men’s attempted attacks, while at the same time attacking them. Her movement and perception skills were so out of balance with the standard, that she was able to dodge and attack even enemies who had their backs to her.
Even if the sword blows passed half-centimeter from her face, she was not alert. She could have died at any moment there, with a blow of some kind, and yet she remained calm.
In the end, she was just playing with those poor men, and this was clear to the crowd, the Straw Hat underlings, and especially to them.
With extreme ease, Alexis dodged two attempted lunges from the lead swordsman, and as she spun around, she landed a kick to the belly that sent him flying away. She then tried to hit the second swordsman with a punch, but your blow was defended by the squire, who then opened the half-dragon’s guard with his shield and tried to cut her with his sword.
Instead of dodging, she held the squire’s sword with the two fingertips of her right hand and smiled as she looked him in the eye.
This act of holding a steel blade with only two fingers made the crowd go wild and angered the Straw Hat even more.
The Cage King was in a distant room, surrounded by three of his generals. They were all watching the main fight that night and were fascinated by the way the half-dragon was fighting.
The general closest to the Straw Hat was Boris, a large man with a dark beard, who most of the time didn’t usually wear anything to cover his chest. He didn’t have a muscular appearance, in fact he had a bulging belly, but he also had huge arms that made him intimidating.
Counting gold coins on a table next to him was one of the other generals, this time a woman. Luna was her name. This woman had hair in a light brown shade, able to remind anyone of the sight of a vast wheat field. She was a bit small and also thin, but in compensation her genius for managing business was unparalleled, using concepts that would make bankers feel envious.
The one remaining, but not the last general, was a boy of ordinary appearance and a reliable smile. His hair was black and his scruffy beard gave him a youthful, almost innocent touch, when in reality this boy was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
To the generals, the boss’s irritation was understandable, because he had bet a high amount on the defeat of the half-dragon, and if that came to pass, The Cage would not only gain notoriety, but he would also quintuple the amount bet. Even so, the generals still believed that they would make a large profit that night, because the high-level members were also betting large amounts, and the tax rate per bet would yield a lot.
Realizing that his generals didn’t seem as annoyed as he was, Straw Hat looked at them and asked:
“Have any of you seen Izabel? She was here a second ago…”
The boy with the innocent smile looked at the Straw Hat to answer him, and did not see his face, only the big hat made of straw covering his face. At this point, he realized that his boss was not just angry that he was losing a bet, but rather that he was having his pride broken.
“Boss, Izabel left 1 minute ago to solve a problem that came up in Sector 1.” The bearded man promptly replied.
At that moment, the battle broadcast showed that the half-dragon ended up subduing the six adventurers by getting a little more excited. At one point, she simply looked around and saw everyone lying on the ground, agonizing in pain. Things were happening so quickly that she eventually forgot to retain the force of her blows and ended the fight earlier than she herself wished.
As all the defeated men were being removed from the arena by some smaller henchmen, the Straw Hat ordered:
“Boris, release Elysium.” The tone of his voice was serious and serene, but somehow it was still easy to tell that he was not liking the way things were going.
So, when the half-dragon was left alone in the arena once again, the entire crowd tensed up to find out what her next opponent would be. No one had ever fought even two battles in a row, but the S-Class was already going into her third consecutive fight, and had already defeated no less than seven opponents in less than ten minutes.
Still, Alexis knew that wasn’t enough time for the half-wolf and the others to complete their part of the plan, so she was grateful for the Cage King’s pride and intense obsession with victory. As the iron bars of the ring began to be lifted again by the black particles, everyone’s eyes bugged out to see as quickly as possible who the next S-Class opponent would be.
Meeting everyone’s expectations, a five-meter-tall lion appeared, and because of its appearance and size, everyone was confused whether this was an animal or a monster.
Each step of this creature was like thunder that made everyone’s eardrums hurt.
This lion’s mane was so voluminous and majestic that it commanded respect just by looking at it. Moreover, the strands of this lion’s mane were not orange or yellow, but had a coppery hue that made it even more beautiful.
This time no one in the crowd dared to shout or run to bet, because the fact that the half-dragon and the Copper Lion were staring at each other created a tension in the air that left everyone simply mesmerized.