LTW Book 2 Chapter 69: Rings and Doubt [first Draft]

While Lone and the Wolfkin walked away from his group, Lone couldn't help but ask the leader, "So, where are we gonna fight exactly?" with hints of enmity in his voice.

"Hmm? New to the city of Gredia?" the Wolfkin replied rather amiably.

"Yeah," Lone said with suspicion in his voice. 'Am I the only one here that feels hostile to the other? Is this disgust for their race not a mutual thing between Wolfs and Foxs, but a one-sided hatred? I'd rather not ask this guy...hmm, maybe Breena knows?' he thought.

"Makes sense. Foxkin usually don't come here as visitors. Anyway, we'll be going to a nearby duelling ring. The Inn has one on its second floor. Should take us about...five minutes to reach it? By the way, almost every establishment in Beastman cities, especially business-oriented ones, have duelling rings. I'm surprised you don't know that. Are you really a Beastman?" the Wolfkin asked with a mocking tone.

"Shut up. I'm new here. You can laugh all you want when I beat your face in for treating my friends like sex objects," Lone said as he looked at the Wolfkin as if they were nothing more than trash, he unconsciously showed his canines and growled a little.

"Oi, that's not fair," the leading Wolfkin objected and stopped walking to look directly at Lone's face. "We may have come across as a bit crude, but we were trying to be respectful since your companions were so beautiful. I'll apologise for being rude and for provoking you, so don't look down on us," the Wolfkin expressed in such a way that it made him appear to be genuinely hurt.

"Huh? Whatever, I'm still gonna beat the crap out of you. I need to de-stress," Lone replied half-heartedly. The Wolfkin frowned a bit, but swiftly turned around and continued walking.

'They think Breena and Eolande are beautiful enough to hit on, despite them being, or looking like, children? Is that normal here? No one's ever really voiced out against it. Such a weird World. Though, I'm not really one to talk,' Lone thought as an image of Sophie entered his mind. he couldn't help but think about the passion-filled night they had experienced on the one-hundred and ninety-ninth floor of Clicker's dungeon.

He shook his head and told himself, 'Not now, another time, Lone! Guess I won't kill these Wolfkin since I don't want to start more trouble. Beating them up and giving them some money to compensate them or something should be enough.'

It didn't take the group of five long to reach the second floor and the room that they entered surprised Lone. "The Space Magic used on this place must be super fucking strong," he absentmindedly mumbled.

What he could see before him, was a large auditorium of sorts that was filled with twenty fighting rings made of stone. Four of them had groups of various races surrounding them while two people fought with their fists in each of their respective rings.

A short Deerkin woman wearing the uniform of the Inn approached Lone and the Wolfkin. "Hello, Sirs. Are you here to have a duel, to spectate, or to bet on the scheduled battles?" she asked politely.

"We're here to fight. Me and the Foxkin, then after that, him and the Foxkin, and so on and so forth until we've all fought him," the leader of the Wolfkin stated with a grin as he pointed his finger at Lone then to himself and all of his friends in order.

The Deerkin frowned. "Sir," she said as she looked at Lone. "You do not need to fight consecutively if you do not wish to. Please don't let these gentlemen bully you into a tough situation," she explained with a kind expression. 'He's obviously not as strong as them, and I can't let them beat him up since he's so handso- ahem. Since he's a respected Foxkin of the Golden Variety, though it seems he's a mixed-breed, or maybe a human experimented on him to change his hair colour?' she thought to herself.

'I keep getting this feeling, but why is no one asking about the fact that I've awakened so many times and that I'm speaking Milindonian?' Lone asked himself and accidentally lost himself in thought, completely ignoring the Deerkin who was concerned for him.

"Oi, oi, he's the one that challenged all of us, not the other way around, don't misunderstand," one of the Wolfkin stated with a slightly offended tone.

The employee looked a bit startled before she replied, "Is that so, Sir?" breaking Lone out of his daze.

"Ah, yeah, I wanna beat these guys up, so here we are," Lone said calmly with a shrug.

"I-I see...I would advise against it, but in my capacity as the duel manager, I have to accept your request to use one of the rings," she said with a sullen expression, clearly worried about Lone's safety.

"I'll be fine, trust me," Lone said with a smile that made the twenty-four-year old's heart skip a beat. 'Oh, for fuck's sake. Don't blush like that. A certain someone will chew my ear off about this later, won't they? I hope she's busy training and not watching me right now,' Lone frowned in thought.

"Well...if you say so, Sir. I'll need you all to sign your names, order of participation and duel type here. Also, please pay the appropriate fees for the duels," the Deerkin said after accepting Lone's words.

After doing as asked and arranging for four normal fist fights where killing was prohibited, the five of them left the manager and entered the sixth ring. The first Wolfkin to fight Lone was not the leader, but a shorter and younger looking Wolfkin who was maybe eighteen years of age.

This Wolfkin looked excited and happy to get the chance to fight against someone at roughly his own power level because, he too, like Lone, was a D-Ranker.

"I look forward to a fair fight," he said to Lone with a toothy smile.

Lone stared back at him blankly. 'Really, are these guys actually good people? I mean, who wouldn't be attracted to Eolande? She is equally as beautiful and charming as Sophie is...I still can't shake the desire to murder these tipsy fools though,' Lone thought with worry.

"Likewise," he replied. 'Fuck it. I'll fight them first and ask Breena about it when I go back downstairs,' Lone added in thought.