’They sure are heavy hitters.’ Lucius thought as he observed the both of them from mid-air.
He didn’t know the name of the guy fighting Esmeralda but he had to be someone with a good role in the story if you were matching the Main Villainess punch for punch.
He still found it surprising that Esme could move like this in such a long gown.
The fabric should have slowed her down, tripped her, or at the very least made her movements clumsy, but she flowed through the stone arena like water.
Each shift of her hips carried precision.
Her legs moved with elegant grace.
’I’m only in this situation because of that guy.’ She thought, twisting her waist as a crackling fist of lightning carved through the space where her chest had been moments earlier.
The heat brushed her cheek, her hair rising with static.
This guy was using both lightning and wind, a combination that made his punches roar like thunder while carrying the cutting edge of a gust.
Each strike was brutal enough to crater the stone floor. ’I really hate facing against Irael.’
"Next time you won’t dump wine on a bystander!" Irael shouted, his voice carried on by the wind.
His fist lunged forward, wrapped in coiling streams of electricity.
Esmeralda bent back, the hem of her gown flaring with the motion, the punch missing her nose by an inch.
The stone behind her splintered.
She immediately countered, snapping her leg upward in a whip-like arc, heel aimed to crush his stomach.
But Irael was quicker. His hand lashed out, catching her ankle with iron grip.
A twist, a torque, and then a powerful swing —
Esmeralda’s body was hurled skyward like a doll.
Her breath caught as she spun in the air.
’Tch...’
Mana surged below.
BOOM!
A spear of lightning blasted upward, striking her mid-spin. Sparks crawled across her body, snapping against her skin as the thunderclap echoed off the walls of the arena.
The explosion of light swallowed her figure, leaving only smoke in her wake.
’I could win this if I used my affinity...’ she thought grimly, her body sizzling with static.
Her instincts screamed at her to let it out, to stop holding back, to burn him down to nothing.
But she hated it.
She hated how easy it was to become the thing everyone already whispered she was.
Even if she acted harsh, even if she played the role perfectly, she didn’t like being the monster they said she was.
The smoke thinned.
"This gown was expensive," she said flatly as she landed, stepping out of the haze as if the lightning had been a mild annoyance.
A pale white aura rippled across her body like mist.
The voltage skittered uselessly across it, fading into nothing. "And it was my favorite dress too."
Her gown, once flowing and regal, now hung burned and ragged from the thighs down.
The edges were blackened, eaten by fire, leaving her pale legs bare.
Her lips twisted into a dangerous smile.
She landed on the stone with a click of her heel. Then, slowly, she raised both her hands.
The air bent.
Lucius tilted his head.
The energy around Esmeralda swelled like a tide, stretching outward in every direction.
The stone floor beneath her feet cracked as its essence was drained, veins of lifeless grey spreading like rot.
The arena seemed to dim, as if all vibrancy had been stolen.
"How about you just die?" she asked, her crooked smile cutting sharp across her face.
And the sea of energy descended.
Lucius felt it immediately.
It wasn’t physical, wasn’t mana in the normal sense... it went far deeper.
A pressure on the soul.
If that wave touched Irael, it wouldn’t scar his flesh, it would tear into his essence, leaving him crippled or worse gone.
The arena groaned, the stones crying out as their very being was consumed.
The energy flooded forward like a hungry beast, collapsing toward Irael with unstoppable momentum.
’And he’s not moving?’ Lucius thought sharply. His brow furrowed.
Irael stood there, his body loose, his fists lowered, his expression calm. Not even the faintest twitch of fear.
’Who the hell would risk their soul like that?’
The sea reached him.
And shattered.
The vast tide of energy, that crushing wall of soul power, simply broke apart like mist in the sun.
It dispersed into harmless motes, drifting through the air until they winked out of existence.
Irael stood there untouched.
And then he smirked.
"I knew you couldn’t hurt me." His grin carried arrogance because he was certain of it.
Lucius blinked.
He couldn’t piece the scene together.
’Is there something I’m missing here?’ he wondered. The Villainess was supposed to be merciless.
It was her very nature, the role she carried into the story.
She could cut down a servant for spilling tea, end a life for boredom, destroy a rival for breathing wrong or kill a man for disturbing her too much.
That was the Esmeralda he knew. So why... why didn’t she even leave him with soul damage for burning her dress?
Esme lowered her hands.
The aura faded back into nothing, as if she hadn’t unleashed anything at all.
Irael turned casually and then he waved one hand as if dismissing the entire exchange.
"I’ll forgive you this time," he said lightly. "Don’t do anything else next time though."
With that, he walked away.
Lucius floated down until he was hanging upside down directly in front of Esmeralda’s face.
"What was that all about?" he asked, his voice filled with curiosity.
Esmeralda sighed, fingers brushing through her black hair as she gathered the long strands behind her shoulders.
She tugged at the torn dress, trying to fix the fabric into some semblance of decency, but her hands stayed there too long and she avoided his eyes.
"Hm?" Lucius raised an eyebrow.
He wasn’t going to let her slither away from this.
Finally, she let out a small breath. Her lips tugged into a faint smile, but her eyes softened.
"Irael was my childhood friend," she admitted quietly, like peeling back armor. "I can’t bring myself to hurt him."
Lucius tilted his head, his upside-down gaze narrowing slightly.
’I can’t lie, I thought it would be something more spicy,’ he thought.