Chương 90: Chapter 2.27: You Dare!?

?

Favius found Sirrana in her quarters after the obligatory morning training. She poked her head out after he knocked.

"Young Master?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, which twisted the scar on her face awkwardly.

"Sirrana." Favius briefly glanced at her before looking to the floor and shifting from side to side.

"Could we talk?" he ventured. She instantly tensed.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes, it's just..." Favius looked over his shoulder down the corridor and took a breath.

"Nobody should overhear us. Can we go outside?"

"And I assume..." He rolled a finger.

"You can do the aura privacy thing?" She smirked without relaxing her shoulders in the slightest.

"I can indeed do the aura privacy thing." She briefly disappeared into her quarters but was back in less then ten seconds. Favius raised an eyebrow. She got battle ready this fast? Arcane steel sword strapped to her side. Blade catcher on her arm. Several daggers. Two in her belt. One secured beneath the blade catcher.

"Alright, Young Master. I hope this is not something catastrophic." Favius released a long breath.

"No, it's just..." He looked from side to side.

"We should hurry..." He trailed off and again looked over his shoulder. Sirrana swallowed. They moved through the corridors of the estate at a rapid pace. Reaching one of the side doors, Favius barely managed to suppress a smile. Well, this is going just as planned. Opening the door, he studied Sirrana's face. Perfect skin. Ugly scar. Her expression a mixture of intense scrutiny and growing worry. They left through a door in the estate wall. Crossed the fields that were being planted.

Walked through the familiar orchards. And entered the forest. Finally they followed the path toward the hilltop. Sirrana suddenly frowned and grasped Favius's shoulder.

"Wait, Young Master." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she sank into a crouch. Favius narrowed his eyes and followed her example. Sirrana shook her head.

"I heard something, but..." Favius heard it too. Rustling in the bushes. Here? But Brutus— Suddenly three mountain goats burst from the scrub. They bleated loudly and scrambled up the mountainside as they saw the humans. Favius snorted out an abbreviated laugh. Even Sirrana couldn't help but smile. Sirrana snorted.

"All-Father-damned goats. It's always something harmless until..." She looked at Favius and smiled. They continued up the tight mountain path and soon walked out onto the plateau. Favius let his eyes wander the black stains of the fireplace where Brutus had made him and Caliga cultivators. He took in the view and recalled the terror of Brutus holding him over the canyon twisting his guts. Sirrana stopped as she reached the middle of the clearing.

"There is something…" She looked around before bowing down on her knees. She picked up a small metallic fragment of stone.

"This is lodestone," she murmured, and Favius felt a bit of electricity tingle from her aura.

"Why is there lodestone all over here?" Favius sniffed.

"Oh, that. Well, you've seen Brutus training us with lodestones for aura control. This is where we've been going a few times. He spread it out for an exercise." He still hadn't turned to her, and his heart began beating faster. Fuck. This is getting tense. And exiting. He heard sounds of metal on metal and turned his head. And the odd feeling crystalized into a clawing sense of being unable to move. He let pneuma flow through his body. I'm still a Young Master.

I must be getting paranoid, still with all of this going on.

"Oh, my aura." She smiled apologetically and looked at Favius.

"It's not quite as pleasant as your Protector's. I must warn you, Young Lord, it's not a pleasant experience." Favius raised an eyebrow. And Sirrana unleashed her aura briefly. He couldn't move. He was frozen, his eyes staring straight ahead. Outside of his control. He was in a dark room. There was a shadow in the periphery of his vision. It was coming closer.

"What the fuck!" hissed Favius and flinched back. Sirrana looked at him and rubbed her hand over her bald scalp.

"I'm sorry. I know it can be a bit much." Favius sniffed.

"A bit much?" That felt like sleep paralysis or something like that. Holy… Almost like being a prey animal facing a predator. Favius shook his head and chuckled while his eyes shifted from side to side. Where is he? When? He gave her a brittle smile and pushed himself to babble on.

"No problem, Sirrana. If that's your cultivation, it's your culti—""Ahhh!" Sirrana screamed and scrambled to the side. Favius barely saw something glint and blur. A sharp thud was followed by a thunderous crack. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. He spun around. One of the large pines at the edge of the clearing had its trunk carved nearly in half. Brutus's axe. The haft of Brutus's axe is holding the remains apart. Dimly, Favius noted pain in his forearm and looked at it.

He brought his hand up until he reached the splinter.

"Ouch," he murmured. Sirrana scrambled forward, her blade outstretched in the direction the axe had come from.

"What is the meaning—" began Sirrana, and Favius tore out the splinter.

"This. This." He giggled as blood spilled from the wound. He couldn't help it. He giggled, keeled over, and nearly keeled over laughing.

"Fucking hell," he said out loud, but his thoughts were racing. Playing bait like this. Brutus told me it was going to be fun, but now that... Sirrana took a step towards him, her face somewhere between confusion and fury.

"Now, now." Drawled Brutus, rising from behind a bunch of boulders. He strode forward, an arcane steel sword casually held by his side.

"Ovinius Kestrelo!" exclaimed Sirrana as Favius took a few hasty steps back. Brutus merely grinned at her, his steps accelerating, and Favius's heartbeat faster. I've been in training fights. Fights against my sisters and even the duel, but I haven't seen how real— Brutus blurred forward. Favius could barely follow the movements, and maybe a dozen sharp clangs of steel turned into a continuous ringing of metallic notes until suddenly both Sirrana and Brutus stood several meters from where he had last seen them.

The arcane steel blades hummed for a fraction of a second before the silence of the forest settled over them like a blanket. Even the fucking birds and squirrels realized that something's going on. Sirrana swallowed and used her injured arm with the blade catcher to draw a dagger. Brutus perfectly mirrored the gesture, now dual-wielding dagger and short sword.

"You dare?" Sirrana gasped.

"You dare attack me? Have you gone mad?" The side of Brutus's mouth twitched upward and again he blurred towards her. Blades clashed and Favius only saw several flashes and vague impressions of movement where they fought. His mouth gaped open. This. He allowed himself a low chuckle. This is fucking amazing. An actual fight. They separated again and Brutus spoke up for the second time.

"Everything worked out perfectly. I was almost worried I would have to save the boy."

"What do you mean?" Sirrana asked, her voice more confused than angry as her eye flicked over at Favius.

"Well, having him lead you into such an obvious trap truly makes me wonder if your injuries not only damaged your body but also your common sense." Sirrana growled, gave an incoherent animal noise.

"Are you mocking me?" she hissed before shaking her head.

"Stop. There's—" Brutus again blurred forward and this time Favius squinted. He sensed… The rapid taps of footsteps. Dust and stones flying. Somehow he still couldn't follow the exchange of blows, but the blurring had gotten more complex with both swords and daggers involved. This time Sirrana winced when they separated. Favius saw the bleeding gash on her sword arm.

"First blood for me," observed Brutus, oh so casually. He snorted and held up dagger and the bloodied sword, almost like a gladiator presenting his weapons to the audience.

"You're disappointing me." Favius snorted in the background, but neither cultivator reacted to him.

"Disappointing you?" she hissed.

"Yeah. I went through all this effort to match your weapons, but seeing how you fight... maybe I should have only brought my fists." Sirrana visibly ground her teeth before swallowing. She lowered her shoulders and her orange owl eyes glared at Brutus.

"Ovinius Kestrelo, please stop this. Whatever it is, we can talk about." Brutus made a chopping gesture with his sword and Sirrana flinched.

"I gave you all but a week for talking." Brutus lowered himself into a combat stance, twitching on the balls of his feet.

"Now, we will let steel speak." He blurred forward. And Favius could hear three distinct rings of steel until—"Aaah." Sirrana gasped and Brutus stopped in an instant, frozen a meter from her, his sword arcing towards her neck. Her blade-catcher-covered arm shivered and Favius saw the dagger that had fallen to the ground. Sirrana winced and scrambled backwards. Brutus smirked, shrugged, and with a lazy kick kicked Sirrana's dagger over to her.

Favius only took a single look at the burning hatred in Sirrana's eyes before a shiver went down his spine. That. That's cruel. If he had continued attacking her, this might have been a real fight. With another angry snarl, Sirrana kicked her own dagger toward the abyss. It skipped over the ground before disappearing over the edge. The moment Favius heard a metallic clinking deep below him, Brutus sniffed and threw the dagger in his side hand over to Sirrana.

Sirrana inhaled sharply as she batted the casually thrown blade to the side with her sword, almost like in a baseball game. It disappeared into the forest. Sirrana was shivering and glared at Favius briefly, then at Brutus.

"Last chance to be reasonable, Ovinius Kestrelo," she ground out between clenched teeth. Brutus winked at her.

"Make me." Sirrana roared like an impaled animal. The ozone smell was the first thing that hit Favius. Then the darkness. He couldn't move. No, his body was frozen as if a thousand needles were piercing it. A dozen shadows at the periphery of his vision. There. They seemed to evade him somehow. No, there. No. But try as he might, he couldn't see them. This. This. He felt his heartbeat hammering in his ears. His heart trying to burst out of his ribcage. They are assassins. I know they are assassins. They? Yes.

They're carrying daggers and they are poisoned. I am— Brutus's uproarious laughter broke the effect.

"Gooood." He drew out the word as Sirrana charged im a blur of movement. Favius attempted to steady himself on his feet. But then Brutus unleashed his aura with a spike of electricity. New impressions hit him. The burning summer sun above. His nostrils were clogged with a metallic tang of blood and other unmentionables. A battlefield. The ground was strewn with butchered bodies and broken weapons. Rivers of blood ran down the hillside. Faceless warriors were clashing in duels.

Bloodied steel, killing intent, and pure martial fury drowned out everything else. Favius took a sharp gasp of air as a familiar electric note of Brutus's aura brought him back. He blinked.

"Why? Why am I on the ground?" Brutus looked towards him and Sirrana stood frozen, only two steps from Brutus. His mentor chuckled.

"Whoopsie. Seems like I..." Sirrana retreated instantly, shivering, and Favius massaged his forehead. Impressions of helplessness in the dark and the savagery of battle hit him in turn. Exchange followed exchange. The ringing of steel. The increasingly vicious comments. Finally Favius shook his head. This. This is not what we agreed to. He pushed off the ground and scrambled over to one of the rocks. Settling on top of it, he raised his voice.

"Brutus!" It was a fragile croak, and Favius bit his tongue. I can't be this weak.

"Brutus! You are going too far!" Favius screamed, and his voice cracked. After finishing the current exchange, Brutus turned his head to Favius, deliberately lowering his sword. Favius recognized the obvious opening. Sirrana took it. And while he couldn't see either of the fighters, Brutus's voice could be heard clearly.

"Trust the process, boy!" He sounded. He sounds... Favius swallowed. Elated. Favius let out a long-suffering breath. Well, if I can't intervene, I might as well observe and enjoy. But he shook his head. They again charged each other. This is the first time I'm seeing cultivator combat. It's weird. Almost mundane. He shivered at another impression of assassins closing in. There's the auras. But those are just experiences. Impressions. He squinted. And the fights.

It's hard to compare this to Earth combat, but we can still make up things. So comparing this to an Olympic boxing match, they might only be two or three times faster than actual martial artists on Earth. Favius snorted. Well, energy scales quadratically with velocity. Those speeds are far more impressive than they sound. He snorted and leaned back against the sun-warm stone. Finally, after three minutes, the two fighters paused opposite each other again. Brutus still stood casually, still lazy, still smug.

Sirrana meanwhile was breathing heavily, her knuckles white on her sword, her robes stained with sweat and blood from a dozen cuts. Only one of them looked murderously serious. Fucking hell. Brutus is playing with her. She took several ragged breaths, then glared with murderous intent.

"What do you actually want!?" she screamed, and Brutus sneered.

"That's a funny question coming from a dishonorable traitor."

"Dishonorable traitor?" she hissed between heavy gasps of air.

"Indeed," Brutus commented, casually twirling his sword in a circle.

"You do not fight properly in the light of the Warrior. You fight in the shade. You attempt to use deception like a devotee of the Messenger." A raw noise escaped Sirrana's throat and she charged in again, but after they separated, he continued.

"To be honest, I'm disappointed. If you weren't related to Aelia, someone of your talent would never have made it to Alticultor."

"You! You..." She gasped. Another exchange rang our with the sounds of steel.

"You know nothing!" screamed Sirrana. Brutus leaned forward and ran his free hand over his eye, mirroring Sirrana's scarred and blinded one.

"You know nothing!" He aped her in a shrill voice. Bile rose up in Favius's throat. This. This is cruel. Inhumane. Seeing Sirrana's face, he swallowed. I can almost hear the grinding of her teeth. Can cultivators break them if they bite too hard? Before he could finish the thought, Brutus delivered the cruelest taunt yet.

"After all I've seen, had divine justice not been blinded on the fateful day when you fought the enemy Pyrii, you would have died like you deserved." Sirrana flinched as if physically struck. She screamed. At least Favius thought she was screaming. The sounds was hard to describe. Never thought someone could get this angry. He stared at her almost purple face as she grasped her short sword two-handed.

"You've done it. I..." Her arm shivered again, but with an animalistic sound she overcame the seizure and raised the sword over her head. She charged. A grin spread over Favius's face. Despite everything. This. This is like a fucking anime fight. Is she unleashing her ultimate attack?