Chapter 3: Blame it on the Alcohol (II)

“Sure.” Renee summoned out the two soul beasts that lived within her soul. A Violet-Eyed Slasher Wolf—a 170 cm long wolf with violet eyes, black fur, and extra large metallic claws on its front paws—appeared on the ground in front of her and a Ruby Crystalline Sniper—a meter tall floating crystalline ruby sphere—appeared over her head. At the same time, she summoned out her two soul artifacts as well, a red necklace with a large ruby in its center appearing around her neck and a silvery-black longsword with a violet stripe down its center appearing in her left hand. “It’s not like you’re going to win anyway.”

“Alright.” Likely planning to win and then get more resources as Renee was forced to try and change the betting terms, Daniel summoned out his own soul beasts, a Blue-eyed Tundra Fox —about 60 cm long with pristine icy blue hair, unnaturally white eyes, and three tails—appearing by his feet and an Astral Sky Raven—a sky blue bird with silver eyes and a 140 cm wingspan—appearing on his left shoulder. Then he also summoned out his soul artifacts, a teardrop-shaped icy earring appearing on his right ear and a blue silvery tome appearing in his hands. “You and I are the kings. We lose if I take damage. You lose if you do.”

“Agreed.”

“I hate you, Daniel,” Adam muttered under his breath as he summoned out his own soul beasts, a Holy Azure Swallow—a small white bird with an azure chest—appearing above his head and a Paladin Shrew—a 1.5 meter long beast with glowing silvery steel armor seemingly designed to protect the creature when it was rolled up into a ball—appearing on his left. Then he also summoned out his soul artifacts, a white and azure throwing knife and a set of silvery armor.

Finally, Ivette Umbra shrugged and summoned out only two of her three beasts, her third not yet grown enough to participate in a fight at their level, a Stormy Night Fairy—a creature which looked like a 20 cm diameter ball of lightning infused darkness—and a Infernal Golem—a 3 meter tall humanoid living rock creature covered in dark demonic flames—both appearing in front of her. Then, like the other three, she summoned out her soul artifacts, a black and azure tiara appearing on her head, a large shield covered in demonic flames appearing in her right hand, and a green cloth appearing over the lower part of her face, tied behind her head.

Like was standard for a two-on-two king style duel at their level, both sides moved so they were 500 meters away from each other, their soul beasts following them. And Adam stood 10 meters in front of my father and slightly to his right while Ivette stood 10 meters in front of my mother and slightly to her left.

“B3?” Adam asked Daniel as the fight was about to start.

“No.” A smirk appeared on my father’s face. “C2.”

Then the fight started and my mother’s Violet-Eyed Slasher Wolf teleported 200 meters forward, rushing towards Daniel. Ms. Umbra’s Infernal Golem moved to be in front of my mother and knelt down, so it’s bulk was blocking her body up to her upper chest. And Daniel’s Blue-eyed Tundra Fox rushed towards the Violet-Eyed Slasher Wolf, forming an aura of cold around itself with the obvious intent of trying to slow down the more powerful beast.

At the same time, Adam rushed forward along a curved path, avoiding the direct line between the women, their ranged attack beasts, and Daniel. Adam’s Holy Azure Swallow flew up into the air, flying towards my mother. And Adam’s Paladin Shrew rolled up into a light-radiating iron ball and started spinning towards Ms. Umbra.

My mother’s Ruby Crystalline Sniper fired a beam of condensed fire, light, and destruction toward the Paladin Shrew, causing the holy glow around the latter beast to reduce slightly. Ms. Umbra’s Stormy Night Fairy fired a bolt of black lightning towards Adam, but the man endured the attack with his armor and continued running. And both women, focusing their power through their jewelry-shaped soul artifacts—my mother her necklace and Ms. Umbra her tiara—fired ranged attacks right at Daniel, a condensed beam of fire, light, and destruction from my mother and a bolt of black lightning from Ms. Umbra.

Their attacks, however, were met by a large spatial portal created by my father, his earring increasing his focus over his own power and his tome increasing the strength of his spatial magic along with the spatial magic of his Astral Sky Raven. At the same time, his Astral Sky Raven created two portals, one aimed towards the Ruby Crystalline Sniper and the other towards the Stormy Night Fairy.

My mother’s attack left the portal facing the Stormy Night Fairy, hitting the fairy and hurting it quite a bit, enough to force it to immediately withdraw from the friendly fight back into its master’s soul. And Ms. Umbra’s attack, leaving the other portal, hit the Ruby Crystalline Sniper, forcing it to withdraw as well.

This then stopped the attacks against both Adam and his Paladin Shrew, allowing them to continue rushing forward, but it was Adam’s Holy Azure Swallow which moved the fastest, quickly approaching my mother, so Ms. Umbra shifted her focus towards it, firing another two black lightning bolts its way.

The Holy Azure Swallow managed to dodge the first bolt mostly, but a few sparks hit it, causing it to spasm slightly. And this enabled the second bolt, deliberately reduced in power so as to not cause any permanent damage, to easily hit it and take it out of the fight.

My mother, however, wasn’t as focused as Ms. Umbra, and she idiotically fired another beam of destruction towards Daniel, which he again redirected using portals, this time the beam hitting my mother’s Violet-Eyed Slasher Wolf, disrupting its attack against his Blue-Eyed Tundra Fox and allowing the fox to keep the large wolf, probably the most powerful soul beast on the field, occupied a bit longer.

The Paladin Shrew then reached Ms. Umbra, and she was forced to defend against it’s repeated powerful rolling body slams with her shield, no longer able to fire any lightning bolts. And, a second later, Adam arrived in front of the Infernal Golem guarding my mother.

The golem tried to stand, to get more in his way, but Adam slammed his right hand onto the golem’s left shoulder, his armor soul artifact protecting him from the golem’s hellish flames, and he used the golem’s own force to launch himself into the air. Then, before either the golem or my mother could react, he used his left hand to throw his throwing knife soul artifact and the blade directly hit my mother in the center of her forehead.

Had he not deliberately blunted the attack, my mother would have died. And, with that, the fight was over. The two men had won.

Everyone desummoned their soul beasts and soul artifacts, other than the green cloth covering Ms. Umbra’s lower face, and Daniel quickly started talking.

“So, I understand you might be embarrassed at how easily you lost. But we can be magnanimous victors.

“You probably care about your dignity more than—”

“Shut up, you stupid thief.” My mother’s voice was more annoyed than angry as she teleported 250 meters toward my father. “I’m not going to give any more of my empire’s resources to a foreign princeling and his giant underling.”

Then she teleported again, arriving right in front of him. “But a bet is a bet. And I’m feeling rather stimulated after the fight, so you’ll do for some stress relief.”

Meanwhile, on the side of Shaar’s parents, Adam’s eyes were wide, the man almost certainly never having thought the two women would actually go through with the bet, mostly because he was an idiot. And he started stuttering out the normal question any decent man would ask in such a situation. “Do you actually want to go through with this?”

And, in response, Shaar’s mother just nodded and started taking off her clothes, the sound blocking effects of her third soul artifact becoming very relevant a few minutes later.