Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Just as one would expect, the hearing ended immediately after Alaris and Lady Onarmont walked out of the large room.

“That was better than I thought,” Skullius whispered to Silrat by his side.

“All according to plan,” the former Association Branch Head said with a smirk while taking in Kurtish’s distressed face with glee.

“He doesn’t seem too happy.”

“Well, he must have realised his involvement was suspicious and decided to act anyway. It would have worked in his favour IF….” Silrat looked to Skullius with a cheeky smile that demanded he finish the sentence.

The Hybrid Luman sensed the desire and sighed.

“If you hadn’t arranged a re-evaluation and told me how exactly to impress Alaris. I get it already. You’re a cool sockethole or whatever,” Skullius said with a shake of his head.

“YOU!” Kurtish suddenly roared at Skullius, hurrying his way to the Hybrid Luman… by trekking hurriedly around the massive table which took him a good six seconds, enough time to make whatever else he had to say awkward after the brief silence of travel.

When he did reach Skullius, his face having so many anger-induced wrinkles that folks from a different universe would have recommended that he ironed it, he exploded… verbally.

“Do you think this is over?!” he voiced loudly but while monitoring his volume in order to not sound too petty in front of his fiancé. “This is just the beginning! You should have just taken the fall for this incident and paid for your crimes on your own! You’re nothing but a coward!”

“Coward?” Skullius neared laughed.

“Exactly! A coward! We’ll see if the Association will be able to help should we face each other again in the Premium Age Royale. Mark my words! You won’t get away with this twice!”

Silrat stepped back to give the two some space.

The Hybrid Luman grinned menacingly.

“You’re on. Let’s make it official, shall we?” he said as he took a step closer to Kurtish. “If we should face against each other again. Whether in the Preliminaries or the Royale, only one of us gets to live. No backing away. No surrendering.”

A dark blue Aura rose from Skullius subconsciously as he spoke, causing Kurtish to summon a circular barrier around himself on reflex.

The Hybrid drew back and turned.

He didn’t need a answer and Kurtish didn’t need to reply anyway.

There were also enemies willing to kill each other the first chance they got.

Kurtish silently watched as Skullius and Silrat left the room and disappeared from sight while grinding his teeth.

*

“I haven’t noticed until now but you really get bloodlusted easily,” Silrat commented.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Skullius played dumb.

These were some of the details he was uncomfortable sharing. Seriously, how would he even continue the subject of the WILL OF BRUTALITY that was always trying to push him to revel in murder and cruelty?

Blood lust? Pfft!

He wished.

That was too tame of a word.

Down the hall, the two could see Alaris and Lady Onarmont chatting heartily.

From this distance, the two seemed like lovebirds from a different age. Or perhaps war buddies? Maybe both.

Skullius and Silrat slowly approached, yet instead of secretly cutting off the conversation as they expected, Alaris and Ornamont included them in their chat.

Onarmont’s rare gaze fell on Skullius once again.

“I knew the only path to Alaris’ heart was through swordsmanship but never did I imagine that a Mage would carry such finesse in the sword that even the Bloodless Steel Phantom would take it seriously,” she said with intrigue.

“Funny enough, his magecraft is the one I find lousy and unrefined. Ahahaha!”

“Hahahahaha!”

“…”

Skullius frowned as the two laughed at Alaris’ description of his Magecraft.

‘Well, the joke is on them! I’m not actually a Mage!’ Skullius secretly chuckled.

“Pardon me. I almost forgot to make proper introductions. This is a very dear friend of mine, Onarmont Rose. She’s a master at a rare form of combat and the adopter of a very powerful class, the Shield Master, An Arma Using type. She is very well known,” Alaris said while gesturing at Onarmont.

‘A Shield Master, eh?’ Skullius thought. It seemed there were lots of crazy classes out there, some that most wouldn’t choose.

He could see why this class would be looked down upon by many.

Yet, he had no doubt that this woman was probably deadly with that heavy shield behind her back.

“Onarmont, this is Festos Dawn Bryne. A very talented Mage whose Class Branching secrets must be revealed to the entire world, haha,” Alaris introduced Skullius. He then gestured to Silrat. ” This is Silrat … a recently joined scout who brought this young Mage in days ago.”

Onarmont spared Silrat a short glance before turning back to Alaris with a frown.

“Wait. A few days ago?” she asked.

“Yes,” Alaris responded.

“You mean to tell me this young man moved from rank 4 to rank 3 in a matter of days?”

“<Sigh>. I wish I could say otherwise.”

Alaris smiled.

Looks like he wasn’t the only one baffled by this.

Onarmont turned to Skullius once again.

“You must quite something,” she said. “How proficient are you with hand to hand combat?”

Hand to hand?

Skullius jerked in surprise.

“I’m not that good at it,” he gave a succinct, honest answer.

“He mainly excels in speed related skills and unique abilities that, as I gather, are not related to Magecraft,” Alaris gave an analysis hewn from the two times he had experienced Skullius’ prowess.

Yesterday’s evaluation had been quite thrilling, so much so that he had ended up getting a little too excited!

Skullius’ beautiful swordsmanship had ignited his desire to fight!

“Speed, is it?” Onarmont said as she sized up Skullius.

“His build is flexible. Power, speed and precision. I can see how his body can perform excellently in all these areas, Alaris. Have you considered taking him under your wing?”