I Own a Brothel in Another World

Chapter 84 – The Duels

“Look what we have here, boys and girls. The crowd’s favourite is finally back. Ready for another beatdown? I greatly missed not being able to train with my best punching bag, hahahaha!”

The alpha bursts out with laughter, almost beginning to howl from the amusement that his own words bring him. The other Beastkin present in the room also chuckle or snort, creating a cacophony of sounds.

He raises his clenched fist and stops. The crowd falls silent immediately.

“You have the audacity to show up after almost two months without giving any signs of life, and you even dare to kill the men sent to escort you back? I’ve been tolerating your meaningless challenges since they brought me some enjoyment. And our special time after them was quite something too. Ahhh, that sweet, defiant face of yours… But, there are limits to everything. I need to finally teach you a lesson. Bring them in.”

After he snaps his fingers, a bunch of people move aside and a group of women is led inside through the same entrance that we have used before. But, rather than led, it’s more like they are dragged by chains connected to heavy collars around their necks, joined with manacles on all the limbs.

We instantly recognize the newcomers. It’s the five women we met up with just moments earlier; Astrea’s friends. Seems like they went after them the moment we moved to the alpha’s chamber. 

All the clothes I’ve given to them have been ripped off and they are completely naked. There are some fresh bruises on the skin of the half-bloods. I’m sure the ones on pure-bloods are just hidden by their fur.

Astrea’s rising fury surges into my mind through our connection. I quickly place a hand on her shoulder and she looks up at me. I faintly shake my head, to which she bites her lower lip. All three of us understand that we can’t jump straight at him with them in their hands.

The group of women is thrown onto the floor on the side of the alpha’s throne. They all glance at Astrea with worry written all over their faces. But, it’s pretty clear that it’s not directed at themselves. They are all anxious about the fate of their friend.

“I’ve been too negligent with you,” the alpha starts speaking again. “Our deal is now off. No matter how much you beg, I will not change my mind this time. You have been covering for these five wastes for quite some time. But, since my punishments have no effect on your insolent behaviour, no matter how hard I go on you, it’s time for a change.”

He snaps his fingers and three other Beastkin move closer to the lying women and crack their whips to the sides.

“From now, it’s their turn to cover for you. Each time you act even the tiniest bit disrespectful, they will be the ones getting punished. And trust me, whipping will feel like a delicate massage to them if you keep up your usual character.”

“You dare!” Astrea roars at him with a low and intimidating growl.

The alpha chuckles. “Since I’ve already taken my time with one of them not that long ago, let’s say that your late return is now forgiven. But, we still have the case of you murdering three members of our tribe, and, what’s even more outrageous, bringing in a FILTHY HUMAN into our sacred home. I’m grateful for healing up Vii, though. However you have achieved that. She can join on the punishment again, thanks to you.”

“If you touch a single hair of their fur again, I swear I’m going to rip your balls off and shove them so far into your throat they will come out through your ass!”

Astrea’s insult only makes him explode into laughter again, followed by the roaring wave of chuckling and snorting from the other Beastkin present in the chamber, excluding her friends.

“And how would you do that?” he asks after silencing down the crowd again. “You’ve never come even close to touching them. Oh, I apologize. I guess it still counts as touching when I’m the one doing it after our duels.” Some people snicker quietly. “Do you think anything would change today? There’s a huge chasm between the two of us. Or… Do you perhaps think that a single Dwarf and this… thing… will be enough to take me down?”

Astrea growls even louder at him. “Do not slander his name… Alastair could slaughter you and everyone present in this room by himself if he wanted to, with the two of us just watching you getting ripped into pieces!”

The alpha moves his eyes onto me and scowls. “I can smell the scent of this Human on you… How pathetic... To be forced into a toy of such a weakling… The disgrace on your ancestors and the members of your clan...”

When our eyes meet, I stare him down with a cold expression. Feeling Astrea growing more and more agitated, I lead my arm to the side and slowly wrap it around her waist. After squinting my eyes at him for a brief moment, I glance down at my precious lover.

As she looks up at me, I lean down a bit, arriving closer to her face. Giving Astrea time to perceive my intentions through our bond, I stop short of her lips and we gaze into each other’s eyes. She shortens the remaining distance and connects us together.

After just a few seconds, we are entwined in a quite rough and affectionate kiss. My tongue invades the insides of her mouth and starts wildly exploring the hot and moist space, actively pursuing her own muscle. I can feel Astrea’s emotions slightly calming down, bit by bit.

When I can’t sense any urges to immediately jump into the battle from her, I make one last dive deep into her mouth, ferociously chasing after her tongue. We separate with a thick trail of saliva connecting our lips and Astrea’s cheeks show a tinge of red from all the heat.

I turn my gaze back onto the Crimson Wolf, still holding my hand on Astrea’s waist. “Contrary to you, I don’t need to beat my women into submission to create a fake image of power. They follow me out of their own free will and actual respect for my strength.”

There are some shocked gasps from the crowd, most likely due to me, a Human, daring to talk back to their great alpha, and the person in question sneers at me.

“Respect for strength? Out of their own free will? Daring words, coming from a Hu—”

An unexpected, weird sensation diverts my attention as he is speaking. I glance down and notice a hand in my pants, and it certainly doesn’t belong to me. Astrea had moved closer as the two of us were speaking and slid her fingers into my underwear while pressing her chest into my side.

I look at her face and our eyes meet as Astrea’s slender hand is gently rubbing my cock. She must have taken the glove off because I can feel the texture of her skin brushing against my rod; her fingers massage my precious jewels. My pants are starting to grow slightly tight.

The alpha obviously notices her actions too and stops talking. Keeping her eyes on mine, she brings me to full mast in no time. I don’t even need to try sensing her thoughts; her calm and charming eyes tell me everything and I nod at her faintly.

She pulls her hand back and kneels down in front of me. In a flash, she skillfully unfastens my belt and drops both my pants and my underwear, releasing my eager erection into the open. She wastes no second and starts affectionately licking it from the side.

I try to fight back the slight tinge of embarrassment growing in the back of my mind to avoid it showing up on my face and look up at the alpha. He is staring at the deed with clear confusion and utter shock painting his furry face, watching how Astrea happily works over my dick; her tail dancing gleefully.

My lover moves her mouth to match the tip and slides it inside, ramping up the pleasure by starting to lively bob her head back and forth while tickling my glans with her blissfully prickly tongue. In the completely silent hall, only the wet noises she makes travel through the air.

「This is… certainly awkward… Let’s maybe not prolong it too much, even though Astrea’s blowjob feels as heavenly as usual.」

Squinting my eyes at the alpha, what catches his attention back onto me from Astrea’s lips tightly wrapped around my rod—which might have been the reason behind quite the bulge in his shorts—I place my hand on the catgirl’s hair and start softly scratching behind her ears.

When almost orgasmic purring starts sending vibrations through my whole dick, even reaching the very balls, I let blissful satisfaction show on my face and release a luscious load inside Astrea’s mouth.

Although without a warning this time, which I usually try to issue to the girls, she takes it like a professional and immediately shoves my whole cock deep into her throat, pushing her face into my underbelly at the first sign of semen on her tongue.

Astrea gulps down the whole load without a break and slowly pulls away while fervently sucking out all the cum from my rod, cleaning it perfectly. A little bit drips from the tip as she lets it out of her mouth and she catches it onto the back of her hand.

She turns her face to stare at the alpha as she ostentatiously licks that tiny bit of seed off her skin while standing up.

“Yours tastes like waste compared to this.”

His eye twitches. A snicker reaches our ears and he glances towards the source. It’s one of the chained girls. A small smirk shows up on my face too, after hearing it.

The alpha releases a short growl at the group and turns back to us.

“You’ve found an incredible mate, Astrea. He fits you just perfectly. Especially with how quickly he comes! You two are really a match made in heaven!”

The hall rumbles from the laughter that raises after his comment. It comes only from his followers, obviously. He stares at Astrea with a smug look. 

“Oh?” I raise one of my eyebrows at him right after the crowd finishes. “So what you are saying is that you can’t do something even as simple as deciding on when to grant your mate the pleasure of receiving your seed? What a sorry man… You should start calling yourself beta instead.”

A loud cracking noise resounds in the chamber as he crushes part of the sofa’s wooden armrest, clearly triggered. And the brief snickers from a few of the naked girls certainly don’t help again.

“Of course I can!” he shouts angrily. “I’m the strongest here! Who do you think you are spea—”

“Show me then,” I interrupt him nonchalantly. “Bring back that female from before and make her blow you. When I snap my fingers, cum. Simple, right?”

After the initial shock of the suggestion, he grows even more agitated, starting to release low growls my way. I think he is beginning to lose patience.

“And can you?! Your pointless bluffing won’t get you—”

“Of course,” I get between his words again. Casually turning my gaze to Astrea, I brush through her hair. “Would you mind—”

“I’ll do it.”

An unexpected statement from my other side takes me slightly by surprise. Sirgia steps forward and looks up at me with slightly rosy cheeks. I want to tell her that she doesn’t have to, but that would just trample on her determination so I nod at her with a warm smile.

She gets down to her knees and stops her lips in front of my still erect penis, gazing up at me just so adorably. I move my hand to her cheek and brush it with my thumb, returning my focus to the alpha afterwards.

“Your call.” I gesture at him with my other hand.

Sirgia places a cute kiss on my glans and slowly takes it into her small mouth. A snap travels through the chamber almost instantly, not letting her slide even half of my length inside. Unfortunately, I don’t have the leeway to warn her quickly enough, and a ferocious wave of milky white liquid hits the back of her throat.

Greatly surprised at first, she quickly regains her composure and receives my semen without a sign of protest, focusing all of her efforts on controlling her gag reflex which was almost invoked with the initial shot.

Contrary to Astrea, she doesn’t swallow. Sirgia waits for me to finish and carefully pulls away while also scooping up all the cum along the way. Without standing up, she turns around and opens her mouth wide, showing the alpha and everyone else on that side a pillow of white on her tongue. 

After they get a chance to stare at it for a while, she swallows everything in one, big gulp. I receive a Whisper, saying not to create water for her and that she is okay.

“And now, your turn.” I nod at the alpha with both eyebrows raised.

It takes him a moment to break out of his daze and he starts blinking repeatedly before shouting again.

“Bullshit! There’s no way! No man can cum this quickly! You were obviously prepared for this! Humans and their dirty tricks!”

I roll my eyes and groan. This will get us nowhere. Not like it was going to take us anywhere in the first place. I don’t think he would abdicate his position after I bested him in cumming.

“Listen, I don’t care—”

A warm sensation interrupts me and I glance down to see two faces close to my hard rod from both sides. A tongue is wrapping my shaft from each of the two directions. The always-shy-around-the-others Sirgia is working in tandem with Astrea, earnestly licking my cock in public and with a partner. Both of them look up at me with their cute faces.

Thanks to all the training my body and skills went through overtime, I don’t even need Rejuvenate to reinvigorate my erection and it's ready to unleash another torrent of white at any moment, just as bountiful as the previous ones. And it still feels incredibly good.

With a soft sigh, I look up at the alpha, again, and place my hands on my loving girls’ heads to pat them affectionately while I stare him right in the eyes. He naturally gets my intentions and we enter the third round.

Minutes pass and nothing happens. Only the wet noises and lewd kisses travel through the air. After being exposed to so much, the atmosphere in the chamber has grown weird. I can spot at least a few females from the audience with their hands buried in their underwear, looking our way intently. I’m trying my best to avoid noticing the wet stain on the alpha’s shorts by focusing on my girls.

After we reach the tenth-minute mark, I sigh heavily and look at him with a dull expression.

“Could you do it already? It’s starting to get boring. I have better things to do than humouring some insecure—”

*SNAP*

Serpents of cum shoot into the air the moment the sound travels through it and milky white cream lands on the stone floor, wave after wave, shot after shot, until there’s no more. I have no idea if scent can travel this fast or if it's just Beastkin senses that are so sharp but almost all the females instantly shiver strongly. Those who were playing with themselves during the show, release muffled moans while heavily biting on their lips; the eyes of a few girls almost roll to the back.

Astrea takes it onto herself to lick my tip clean. Sirgia stands up and rises onto her tiptoes to give me a loving peck. I rub my nose against hers as we faintly smile at each other and then turn to the big idiotic wolf.

“So?” I ask.

“He won’t do it,” Astrea answers instead, standing up too. “He can’t. He would cum after thirty seconds. No matter what. Trust me. There’s a reason why he never mates in public.”

As the alpha turns completely furious, Sirgia dresses me up, putting my precious privates back into their material storage. He raises himself from the sofa, showcasing to everyone his stained shorts, and takes a stance looking almost as if he is going to launch himself at Astrea at any second, growling menacingly.

“You! I will tear you and these bitches into shre—”

“By the pledges of the founding ancestors, I hereby challenge Micah, the current leader of the Underground Collective Tribe, for the position of the alpha. If the challenged refuses the fight, he will be brought down by any means necessary and stripped of his authority, privileges and respect. I take all of you present here as my witnesses,” Astrea interrupts him and sweeps her gaze over everyone who is around.

The crowd begins whispering amongst themselves and new people suddenly start flooding the chamber through the main entrance. I recognize Taro as the one guiding them. They all have weapons in hand and whatever armour they possess is now covering their bodies. 

Around twenty Beastkin, male and female, spread out throughout the room, taking spots by the walls, all turned towards the middle. After the last person takes their position, they all ready their weapons, and those who hold bows and crossbows, aim them at the alpha. 

Oh boy. If this isn’t a checkmate then I don’t know what is. Micah certainly is a strong individual, but these people surely aren’t all weaklings either. Even if we assume that half of them aren't that good at fighting, there’s no way he can easily plough through all of them. Especially with Astrea aiming for his neck.

With this unexpected mutiny, the alpha clicks his tongue. “Fine. I accept. Not that it changes anything. I won’t be going easy on you today. I’m going to rip you in half in front of your pathetic mate!”

He lunges forward from the raised platform and lands in the middle of the chamber, a bit behind our backs, beginning to stretch and flex his muscles. The people on the sides put their weapons down, still following the alpha with their gazes. 

Astrea turns around and takes off her gloves. She steps closer and shows them to me.

“Could you hold them for a moment, Alastair?”

“Of course.”

As I pick them up from her hands, Astrea pushes herself forward and joins our lips together with our hands still entwined. I let her do with me as she pleases and her tongue ferociously assaults my mouth. We exchange sloppy and almost feral kisses for a few moments.

She finally pulls back after getting enough with a rare smile painting her lovely lips.

“Thank you. I’ll be back soon.”

With a quick rub of her face against mine, Astrea walks towards her opponent with a graceful and proud step. It’s not an understatement saying that she steals the show as almost everyone switches their attention to her, which doesn’t make the alpha too happy.

I’m not sure why she handed me the gloves, but perhaps it’s connected to this whole duel. Micah doesn’t seem to be carrying any weapon so I guess she doesn’t want to give him any reason to complain even if she didn’t activate the enchantments.

As the two of them do some stretches while staring each other down, I move with Sirgia to the five women lying on the ground on the side of the sofa. The faces of the half-blood girls are clearly flushed and I’m sure those of the pure-bloods would be the same if not for the fur covering their skin. Oh well. Apologies for that.

I crush their restraints with bare hands, surprising them greatly. To be honest, I just wanted to try it to see if I can, not to impress them or anything. But, I guess I should also start showing off some strength instead of just talking back to that jerk. The wide eyes of the other Beastkin that saw what I did are pretty amusing.

“Are you sure she will be okay?” the pure-blood Foxkin lady, Vii, asks me with a slightly uncertain gaze.

“Do you maybe know how close their previous fights were?”

“He was always able to get the upper hand on her, but she got close a few times,” the Leopardkin girl answers.

I smile at them while helping them up, trying not to ogle their well-developed bodies in full view. And that’s certainly hard with the wide variety of sights in front of me. 

The grey-furred wolfkin has a juicy, muscular body and appropriate, perky breasts, being around my height. The leopardkin with her spotted fur is quite lean and fit, and with her petite chest, she stands at around my mouth’s height. The last of the furred trio, the foxkin, packs quite a rack in the front, being slightly shorter than me but making it up with her delicious hips.

The remaining two half-blood felines are both around a head shorter than me and are quite decently developed. Especially the small, alluring patches of fur above their closed slits are hard not to stare at.

“Well… Ekhm… Then I don’t think we have anything to worry about,” I say after moving my eyes back to Vii. She clearly noticed me checking them out. “Astrea recently had a breakthrough. She’s nothing like her old self.”

I turn around to check the arena. Astrea and Micah are pretty much ready; both looking my way. The latter is glaring at me rather than looking. My cute Beastkin partner just nods at me appreciatively, most likely for helping her friends.

「Alright. I guess I need to show that I’m not just a decoration.」

“Give me a second,” I say to Sirgia and the Beastkin girls.

Stepping forward, I bring my draconic hilt from behind my back. Micah furrows his brows at me but I just ignore him while shaping up a greatsword with quite feral features. I take the handle into both hands and raise it up with the tip of the weapon pointing to the ground. After a moment, I shove it into the stone floor almost to the very guard.

The whole hall trembles a little and giant blades emerge from the stone pavement one by one, parallel and next to each other, surrounding the rectangular arena with a mesmerizing purple-pink metal palisade, creating a cage around the contenders with an open top. I loudly snap my fingers and they turn see-through, with a faint pink tint.

“Just making sure things stay fair,” I announce when everyone’s eyes turn to me.

Running my cold gaze over all of them, I nod at Astrea and step back from the hilt, returning to my group.

The five women look between each other—all of them locking gazes with each one—and then nod unanimously. In the next moment, the wolfkin and the foxkin wrap their arms around mine and start escorting me ahead, with the rest following closely behind us.

Before I have any time to process things, I’m already sitting on the alpha’s fancy sofa with all of them sprawled around me. On my left, leopardkin and pantherkin. On my right, wolfkin and catkin. And on the laps of all four of us, Vii is lying on her back, with her bountiful chest directly on my legs.

The wolfgirl leans into my ear. “There’s nothing else he hates more than seeing females who deny him willingly giving themselves to another male.”

She puts one of her feet on the seat and spreads her legs for everyone to see, guiding my hand to her pinkish pussy, slightly dripping with love nectar, beginning to lick my neck. At the same time, Vii takes my other hand and makes me squish her marshmallowy breast with a coy smile.

Sirgia appears in front of me and gives me a death stare before giggling to herself adorably and sitting down in front of the sofa, resting her back on my legs. Seriously. She is starting to pick up after Cornelia too much.

I sigh internally and decide to play along. As my fingers begin slowly sliding in and out of the wet pussy of the wolfgirl and kneading the soft breasts of the foxgirl, I glance at Micah with a smirk. His eyes twitch furiously. This is actually kind of fun.

“Ahnnnnn~”

He loses it completely when Vii releases an overexaggerated moan and he launches himself at Astrea with an enraged expression. She has been ready and waiting for him to make a move so Micah’s raging fist slams into her extended palm.

After her whole arm twists a bit around its own axis, his attack slides over it and travels further behind her back as she positions her body in parallel with it. Just as Micah passes her elbow, she spins a little and hits his stomach with a strong kick, sending the crimson-furred wolf flying back and crashing into one of my giant blades with a loud gong.

She wastes no time and rushes after him, shortening the distance in just three steps. But, before her own fist connects with the wolfkin sprawled over the hard surface, he ducks down, causing it to smash into the sword with even louder noise.

Micah manages to land an attack on her during that moment and sends Astrea flying in turn. She fixes her position in the air and lands on the ground, sliding back a few meters. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get a break as he appears in front of her with another punch already on its way.

She meets it head-on and their fists connect with a loud boom. If not for the wall of magical steel, everyone else would have been hit by a powerful shockwave which was now all directed into the ceiling.

Both of the contenders get pushed back a little, but the more attentive observers can notice that Micah’s arm was blown away slightly harder, which clearly confuses him. It must have never happened before in their duels.

Astrea releases a ferocious hiss and lowers her posture. I notice some blue symbols lighting up under the bandages on her ankles and she disappears from our vision a moment later. Showing up for a fraction of a second in different spots in front of Micah as she is approaching him, Astrea takes him by surprise when she materializes literally in his face.

A powerful kick into his muzzle from below sends the wolfkin into the air. Her posture blurs and she disappears again, pushing Micah higher and higher by repeated kicks in the stomach each time she appears under him. After reaching the top of the sword fence, she shows up behind him and flings him back into the stone floor with a spinning kick from above.

The audience gasps loudly as the impact makes the whole place shake again, kicking up a cloud of grey dust. Yeah. I don’t think this is the norm. There’s no way they would be so shocked if this would have been what the girls called close in Astrea’s and Micah’s fights. Even they are drawn to the scene with their mouths slightly open.

A loud howl reverberates through the chamber, forcing a few of the Beastkin to cover their sensitive ears. A streak of red flashes in the middle of the still falling cloud of ashes. Astrea’s ear twitches and she steps aside just in time to avoid a wide swing from the wolfkin, who lunges from the obstructive powder at breakneck speed.

He crashes into the sword wall on his path, actually causing the blade to crack a bit at the point of impact. That clearly shows how strong he is. So far, only Garrena was able to achieve that, before Astrea tiered up. Both of the girls are currently at Tier 4. So, he’s at least that.

And I’m pretty sure that all the glowing blood-red markings that are now visible on his whole body, lit brightly enough to show up even from under his thick fur, do have some influence over this. They create sinister, tribal paths from his feet to the top of his head. Micah is now releasing bone-chilling growls all the time. Looks like someone got angry.

Astrea doesn’t seem too surprised with this change so I guess it’s not something new. Her ear twitches again and she steps to the side, dodging a blow I barely noticed coming at her. I’m fairly sure it’s only thanks to my high stats being utilized by my race that I can somehow keep up with parts of their movements.

Micah slams both fists into the ground where Astrea was standing just moments ago and the whole hall trembles under the might of his attack. Of course, the flooring stands no chance and is smashed into pieces that fly to the sides and hit the translucent wall. It was a good decision to erect it.

With his speed and strength enhanced, he chases after Astrea and starts bombarding her with a myriad of almost berserk-like punches and kicks. She is not able to avoid all of them, and each time their arms or legs connect, an earth-shaking boom travels through the air. 

I can feel bits of her pain from these strikes now and then, but Astrea is holding herself pretty decently. If worse comes to worst, I’ll just switch with her in a critical moment. That Heart Swap does exist to be used. I’m not going to just sit back and watch my precious partner get seriously hurt or even killed. Fuck your duel. I would kill you afterwards anyway.

But, it seems that my thoughts are a bit too hasty.

As another heavy hit heads for Astrea’s guard, I barely notice a faint smirk on her face. The ground under her feet lights up with blue patterns just moments before the impact.

Time seems to slow down for me. No, not just for me. Amongst everyone, including the alpha, there are two people who seem to be unaffected by this event—Astrea and me. For whatever reason, I can observe her movements in real-time.

Micah’s fist slowly lands on her joined forearms and he gets launched backwards with a powerful wave of force repelling him back. The blue patterns grow in size as Astrea raises her leg in an almost full split and digs her heel deep into the ground with a heavy slam.

The hall shakes so strongly that bits of the ceiling break off it and start lazily falling down onto everyone’s heads. Two giant cracks run through the floor on the sides of her foot at a normal speed and pass Micah while he is still in the air. The part of the path that’s on Astrea’s side caves in and a block of stone surges up like a see-saw that broke off its dock and slams into the wolfkin’s back from behind, starting to bring him to her with itself.

As the huge slab of stone is now speeding towards her with Micah on its surface, Astrea closes her eyes and draws her leg to the back in a similar motion to the one in the sewers, but this time, carving some graceful, circular paths in the air with her hands.

Blue energy starts gathering around her and flowing into Astrea’s body in a spiral from behind, concentrating in her right palm. I can faintly spot her eyes receiving bluish, sharp shadows around them. 

It seems that she has been letting Micah run wild in preparation for this moment as the formation on the floor quickly surges towards her too, crawling onto her skin. With markings present on her body now too, in blue colour instead of red, she completes her move and opens her eyes. The time returns to its natural flow at that moment.

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!”

As Astrea’s palm rushes to meet the incoming body of Micah plastered on the surface of the stone floor she previously ripped off with her attack, a huge, bluish, transparent torrent of energy manifests over her whole arm, making her hair and even the tight clothes flutter chaotically.

She lands an unbelievably loud hit that almost causes us to fall off the sofa and pulverizes the rectangular boulder into almost nothingness. A blinding flash of blue light assaults everyone’s eyes for a split second. 

A thunderous roar with the shockwave so strong that it tilts the blade walls to the outside a bit echoes through the room as I barely register something metallic breaking loudly, followed by a deafening thud of something hitting the stone wall behind us and also causing it to shatter.

A brief moment later, I notice a jagged hole in the middle of three purplish blades, which quickly start getting covered in glowing cracks and explode into pinkish particles of light. Turning my head to the back, I find another hole but this time in the wall, and at least two more further ahead.

Whatever Astrea’s punch was, it bore enough force to not only grind the piece of flooring she sent back at herself into dust, shatter my blades created out of crystalized mana-metal like porcelain, but also to smash through a few more thick walls on its path of destruction. That guy is gone. No way he lived through that.

Astrea staggers and drops onto her knee, breathing erratically. It’s only natural that something like this took an insane toll on her. I’m fairly sure this is not a technique someone at Tier 4 can casually drop onto others like it’s their daily exercise.

And, of course, the whole hall falls silent after such an unbelievable display. All the eyes are locked either on Astrea or the glaring hole in the wall behind me and the girls. We are lucky she sent this punch slightly to our side or we would have gotten disintegrated along with that crimson-furred idiot.

Since they no longer serve a purpose, I try recalling the swords making up the arena without moving to the hilt and they slide back into the ground. After tapping the tummy of the still flabbergasted foxkin lying sprawled on my lap, she lets me stand up.

As I begin walking, Astrea’s ear twitches again and her head snaps to the opening in the wall. All my muscles tense instantly.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”

I can feel the floor under my feet getting blown into smithereens as my body lunges forward, clearly breaking the sound barrier as a deafening explosion tears my eardrums along the way. The very moment I feel the draconic hilt in my palm, I invoke Heart Swap.

Pink covers my vision for a brief second as I hear a seductive giggle in my mind. Instantly after the weird tug that pulled my heart disappears, I spin around with an already shaped nodachi and don’t even think about which technique from Shino’s skill I invoke.

As I’m turning, I see the mutilated, bloodied body of Micah flying at me from above while holding a huge halberd surrounded by a red aura, similar to that of Astrea’s but smaller. His eyes turned completely crimson and there’s a glaring hole in his stomach. Blood splatters everywhere as he makes his way through the air towards me.

I put all the mana I can gather in the remaining moment and push it all into the activated skill. As my hands trace a horizontal swing, my weapon explodes with black smoke and sends off an arc of dark, ominous energy behind its trail.

The almost one-hundred-eighty-degrees-wide crescent shoots into the air and cleaves through Micah and his weapon at his neck’s height with completely no resistance, slamming not only into the ceiling but also both walls on the sides, gods know how avoiding splitting any of the people in the audience in half with how broad and extensive it is.

The chamber rumbles the strongest yet as three of its structural elements receive a powerful blow that slices right through the stone like it's nothing and travels who knows how far. I just hope it doesn’t reach the surface.

Micah’s corpse splats onto the ground by my side as I blankly stare at the deep gash in the walls and the ceiling, from left to right. Feeling dizzy out of a sudden, I shove the nodachi into the ground to support myself. Casting my gaze forward, I spot Astrea and Sirgia running my way. Seeing the former safe and sound, I smile briefly at the duo and await their arrival.

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