The match that had been in progress ended with one of the two contenders dead – naturally.
With the fighters being cleared from the platform seconds later, the view between Skullius and Gabel became untainted, not that either of the two needed it anyway.
The Hybrid Luman cursed for the umpteenth time today.
Weirdly, he had been drawn to Gabel when he had first sensed his unrestrained presence – back when he had to get evaluated at the Guilds Association.
He had searched for Gabel, surmising later that it was one of Fulgardt's wills, the WILL OF BRUTALITY that drew him to this madman. The reason remained unknown, but he found that Gabel was also interested in him.
Well, he was interested in killing him, but that counted as interest too right?
Before Skullius knew it, there was a whole mess in front of, all of it being drawn by who-knew-what.
He sat back down and sighed, enduring the selective killing intent radiating from Gabel.
Aurolio laughed.
"You are full of surprises, you know?" he said before his cheery smile vanished, replaced by an indifferent one. "You should be careful. He's pretty dangerous. It wouldn't take a moment for him to kill you, but it would take more than the same amount of time for you realise that you are dead."
Skullius turned to the pale man.
"Are you two acquainted?" he asked.
"Very match so actually. He tried to kill me once. Didn't work out well for him, but with what I assumed was dumb luck back then, he managed to escape with his life," Aurolio replied.
The summary of events made Skullius shudder a bit.
He didn't picture Gabel as someone who would scurry away from a fight but that was what Aurolio was implying.
The image of Gabel was quite inflated in Skullius' mind so to hear the man being talked down on like this...
On the other hand, his view of Aurolio was also inflated, tragic as that was, which created a dilemma that depended solely on what the Hybrid Luman chose to believe.
"So it wasn't luck that he survived?"
"Nope. I only realised some time ago that he just might be as dangerous as what those spineless fools from strained Families find him. Maybe not for me but certainly for my partner."
Aurolio softly patted Skullius' back with a friendly smile.
'Partner? Who? Me? I haven't decided dammit!' Skullius fumed within.
Aurolio was sure Skullius would agree to his proposal and the Hybrid Luman was edging more towards seeing this deal positively.... if it was sealed with a Tie of Exchange that is.
The problem with that though, was that if Aurolio didn't know what a Tie of Exchange was, as most people didn't, he would need Sila to create it.
Perhaps it was just excessive paranoia but Skullius wasn't sure he would be able to have the Tower General extend his tendrils close to Aurolio without the pale man noticing it.
That would essentially be revealing one of his hidden cards.
Thankfully, simply asking Aurolio seemed safe. Probably.
Tearing part of his attention from Gabel, Skullius asked:
"If we are going to go with this arrangement, what kind of contract do you propose?"
Aurolio's smile grew devious.
"Do you have any requests?"
Skullius silently cursed.
"Do you know what a Tie of Exchange is?"
Aurolio sized him up.
"Yes, but I'm not too good at using it," he said. "Are you?"
Skullius' face strained.
He didn't know if Aurolio was telling the truth or not.
Lying that he couldn't use it was actually to the bastard's benefit.
The one to enact a Tie of Exchange was usually the one with the heavier burden when both parties had terms for the contract. For instance, when Silrat had been the one to initiate a Tie of Exchange between himself and Skullius, he, as the prime attendant, was specifically stated by the guidance field in the Hybrid Luman's view to be bound to his word but... Skullius wasn't.
This wasn't to say the lesser attendant of the Tie of Exchange could simply not hold up their end of the deal, but there was some kind of leniency afforded that Skullius hadn't yet gotten a proper understanding of. After all, he hadn't failed to deliver what he promised... yet.
In this case though, he wondered if that leniency would be afforded to Aurolio if he were to breach their Tie of Exchange.
And if the pale man knew more about Tie of Exchange than Skullius, that detail included, then this could end very badly.
That said, if Skullius answered with a 'no' right now, that gave Aurolio the chance to use a magical contract that he wasn't familiar with. It could be a dud and Skullius would have no way of knowing since he didn't have much experience with magical contracts outside of Ties of Exchange.
Argh...
This was frustrating.
Aurolio seemed to be benefitting either way.
Of course, Skullius could just ask Sila for help.
...And that is what he opted to do in the end.
"Give me some more time to think about this. At least until after the matches," the Hybrid Luman said, dodging Aurolio's question entirely.
There was no need to rush. By the time the seven matches were over, Skullius was sure he would have a solution.
"Alright. Let's do that then. I'll pretend I'm that reasonable," Aurolio said with a playful smirk.
He didn't pursue Skullius' decision to dodge.
'What's that supposed to mean?' Skullius thought to himself.
At the same time the two were starting to reach some form of partial conclusion – one that seemed to already have Skullius and Aurolio's confirmation to the agreement – two flashes of silver light shone over the white platform as Guissepo rose up, giving up the space for the next two contenders.
Aurolio's eyes narrowed.
"Well then, partner, since you're guaranteed to be participating in the Royale, provided that you don't mess your Second Preliminary match, let me extend my goodwill further," he said to Skullius.
The Hybrid Luman checked to see who was fighting next on the platform, as it seemed to be what Aurolio was alluding to.
He sighed exasperatedly.
Was this some kind of sick joke to line up the three specific individuals that he had been told to be wary of?
He couldn't help but believe that it was.
It was Vali's turn to fight!
As if that wasn't enough, opposite her, the spoiled, pampered and pompous figure of Kurtish was standing ready, a little apprehension leaking from his fragile, confident facade!
"You're familiar with this woman, right? You have to be. The rules allowed for her to mess around in the First Preliminary Round but I'm sure she'll be fighting for real this time to secure her place in the Royale. Watch closely, partner. She has a rather treacherous technique. It's no problem for me but for you, it could be problematic."
Skullius could have gone without the annoying 'partner' additions in Aurolio's exposition but he couldn't help but pay attention to the battle about to take place nevertheless.
He knew Vali was the Head of her Family, the Kinn Family, which was renown for always producing youngsters with high aptitude for Energy Forming, mainly healing.
So, was her technique... healing?
Or maybe some messed up variant of the concept of healing?
Outside of this, Skullius knew that Vali had an outrageous amount of mana. Even while considering his recent growth, her total quantity was close to seven times his own and none among the contenders even came close to that amount.
There was a cap to how much one person grew per each stage and mana core, which was why the peak of the Master Stage had several individuals with similar limits to their mana quantity, IF they had the same mana core level.
But Vali shattered that established rule.
Did this have to do with her technique perhaps?
As Skullius wondered all these things, Vali, who was on the white stage gave an alluring smile.
Aurolio was right.
This time, she wasn't planning on throwing away a match for strategic plays outside the Premium Age Royale.
She was going for the kill.
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m