RD 5 Ch 26

I swallowed audibly, the sound seeming to reverberate across the battlefield. I looked around, expecting the whole area to have heard me, and they might have as fighting slowed and more than a few eyes shifted my direction.

The more that looked my way, the more others followed. Fighting slowed as the Mul Branova and Circe’s elites began casting their gaze and my direction, realizing my next actions would determine the outcome, regardless of what they managed to do on their own.

It was far from the first time I’d felt a battlefield of pressure turn my way, yet somehow this was even more bothersome than normal. Should I fail my attempts to gain Circe and Simone‘s support, this entire situation would go up in smoke. And not just the situation, but so too would people that I cared about. Perhaps I’d grown softer in this second life, but I suddenly felt like my heart wasn’t as hard as it once was to loss.

I knew all of them had chosen to cooperate on the hope that I was Lord Bran, yet they believed it was entirely within their power to crush me should my promises fail and they end up disappointed.

With the pressure of those three focused on me, I stepped around the woman I’d beaten from Winnie’s group who was still kneeling with one leg cut to the bone. I ignored everybody else, my eyes stayed locked on the trapped Winnie.

Circe, who’d been floating away from her, landed near me. “If you can’t do what you stated, signal me so I can settle this quickly.” She watched me curiously.

I chuckled. “If this fails, I’m not sure I’ll have a neck left to nod.”

Circe’s eyebrows shot up. “You don’t sound confident.”

“I’m fairly sure it’ll work,” I replied, and I pointed at Winnie. “But she’s also fucking terrifying.” I didn’t need to inspect her to know that at present there was a massive gap in our stats.

Circe laughed. “She is strong one on one. She’s really our only hope of fighting Princess Almeria. If this woman is a tiger.” She gave a small, amused shrug. “Then the princess is a dragon.”

I raised a hand, an unspoken signal to stop, that if I couldn’t do this, then they certainly wouldn’t be able to handle the other fight without considerable help. My eyes never left Winnie as I kept moving. Stopping now would only telegraph weakness and give the trapped woman a chance to take back what I needed from her.

Right now, I needed her to believe that she’d lost and to do enough to convince her that if she continued to fight me she would only lose more. After all, I didn’t want to kill her. I wanted to subdue her.

Winnie watched me not unlike that of a predator trapped in a cage. Her gaze reminded me of polar bears in zoos. A bored gaze, though beneath it there was an undercurrent of promise. If there wasn’t a barrier between the two of us, I’d already be a feast splayed out on the ground.

Simone and the Mul Branova looked over their shoulders at me as I moved to them. They were the ones maintaining the cage and would likely be Winnie’s first target once she broke free. After all, no one wanted to go back in a cage once they’d escaped.

Simone’s eyes grew sharp as I drew near. “I do hope you know what you’re doing, Lord Bran.” The way she spoke my name was clearly for the benefit and encouragement of the Mul Branova holding the cage.

“I know Winnie’s weakness,” I said, meeting Simone’s eyes. “It’s just a matter of exploiting it.” Simone nodded, then cast several abilities over me as I stepped forward and through the Mul Branova’s barrier.

Much to my surprise, and everyone else’s, Winnie didn’t attack as soon as she had the opportunity. She rested the head of her scythe against the ground and leaned on it, appraising me carefully.

“You are a curious one,” she said, keeping her distance. It was even more worrisome than her attacking directly. She likely thought that she wasn’t in the slightest danger and that she could break free whenever she wished.

I needed to strike fast, before she got bored.

“Oh? Why is that?” I asked, not getting closer but staying in motion as I walked the edge of the barrier, forcing her to turn her head to keep me in her line of sight.

She didn’t recognize me as a threat. She didn’t even bother to twist her hips to stay ready. Instead, she only moved her head, which would make it far harder for her to react if I tried a sneak attack. Perhaps she’d seen my stats and wasn’t that concerned given the disparity between us.

“Your gait,” Winnie said, her eyes darting down to my hips and then my feet. “You walk like you’re far more familiar with battle and weaponry than your character page suggests.”

Ah, ever the warrior. She was the star of a sect only to make her own, her skills in training others wasn’t just for show.

I smirked at her observation. “What else do you see?”

“Both of the other leaders are oddly listening to you,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “The Mul Branova even referred to you as Lord Bran. Curious to see that the man they worship is actually so weak. I can’t help but wonder what actually stepped into the ring with me. Is it a man greatly hiding his strength and mystery beneath a body more familiar with battle than his skills suggest? Or perhaps it’s neither. Perhaps it’s a fake, a paper tiger trying to get me to back down.”

“Come now, Winifred Delery,” I said, using her full name but not bothering to inspect her. I was sure her stats hadn’t changed much since the last time I’d used Soul Gaze on her.

“A cheap trick,” she answered.

“Is it a cheap trick to talk about your curse?” I asked, watching her closely.

Winnie stared at me, curiosity plain on her face. Perfect, she had the curse or was at least aware of it, but didn’t yet know where it came from. A wonderful solution to make her doubt the current situation and perhaps nudge her into giving me a chance.

“You lost the memories of how you got it, didn’t you?” I pushed.

This time Winnie stopped turning her head and faced me with her whole body, her attention locked on me. “You know about the curse or perhaps you created it?” she asked, a slight snarl sneaking into the last question.

“Nope. Wasn’t me.” I continued to circle, sweat beading down the back of my neck at what she might have done if I hadn’t answered that one to her liking. “But I find it interesting that the knowledge of it hasn’t followed you here. After all, the Demon King himself cursed you.”

Her eyes narrowed further, suspicion coiling in them. Even mentioning the Demon King seemed to make fire rise in her eyes, even if the memories were blurry at best. 

That gave me a glimmer of hope that my task would be easier than expected. Even if Syssy had obscured Winnie’s memories and painted them into something new, like they had done for my own Trial of Kings, somewhere deep down Winnie’s loathing for the Demon King had survived whatever had been done to her memories. The subtle truth of the curse I’d named had to light her suspicions to no end.

Winnie was really not right in the head, though that had already become apparent with how she fought to enter the Trial of Kings in the first place. Her hatred for the Demon King and the desire for power to do something about it, ran too deep.

“Unfortunately, you’re only going to get answers one way,” I said, finally stopping my circling. “You need to surrender to me and allow me to lead you, same as the other two.” I nodded toward Circe and Simone.

There was a pregnant pause, as if everyone were holding their breath, waiting for her answer or strike me down.

Winnie threw her head back in bold laughter. When she looked at me again there was a strange heat in her eyes. “You want me to serve under you?” she scoffed.

“Under me,” I chuckled, seeing a chance to push her buttons. “Or you can be on top if you want. I won’t complain.”

I moved on to Plan B, or maybe at this point Plan C, given Winnie had confirmed the curse was still active. Any slight arousal would warm her body; that warmth fed more arousal in a feedback loop that would eat away at her ability to think rationally. I didn’t want to take it so far I would regret what happened next.

However, just tossing out innuendos would be enough for her to feel the curse beginning to spark. She kept a tight lid on things in the real world, but here she might not be quite so practiced.

Sure enough, the curse began to take hold. Winnie panted heavily; hot breath puffed from her as her eyes slid down my body to my crotch.

It was faster than even I expected. I wondered just how much physical and psychological torture she’d endured from this curse for her to be so calm normally. Or just how great she had become at bottling everything up.

If this was the reaction from a simple tease, how powerful was the volcano of emotions she kept under her normal frosty exterior? It put her sudden mad dash for the Trial in a new perspective.

I had not known her in my past life until after the curse had been lifted. Though she acted much in the way I’d seen thus far in this life, I understood better just how volatile everything must be underneath seeing the curse in action now.

“What have you done to me?” she asked, clarity snapping back into her gaze only for her glare to hold the weight of a high level beast ready to rip my throat out and bathe in the hot gush of my blood.

Fuck, she was nuttier than I ever realized.

“I’m afraid I am using your curse against you. It’s not my favorite path, but it is the necessary one to unite our forces.” I said, with my best poker face even as sweat beaded down behind my ears. If she were any closer she might see that the sprinklers had just turned on and sweat was starting to run down my back side in streams. “You can see my stats as well as I can.” I shrugged. “If I’m going to win this, I have to play dirty.” I said the last word with a purr, giving her my best bedroom eyes.

Winnie’s jaw tensed hard enough I worried she’d break a tooth as she glared at me. “You promise to resolve this curse, and my girls are yours as long as you don’t send them to an untimely grave. Now, help me control this at once,” she growled, half as if she might tear my eyes out the second I failed her.

Her words landed like a quest completion, and an increase of stats hit me in the gut hard enough to make me double over.

AN - The Key and Peele meme was 100% in my head.