Chapter 14: Lethargic

With lightning seemingly coming from his feet, he moved so fast that it was like he made instantaneous travel; from the edge of the circle of soldiers to Louise’s front, the young man fiercely looked at the battalion commander with a strong bloodthirst.

“Gus!” the young lady behind him called out.

His angry expression transformed into a warm one after one word from the young lady as he looks at her, but after that the hungry tiger-like face returned as he looked at the battalion commander.

Feld felt strong fighting power from Gus and started to think of an alternative plan where they could all escape. As Feld was thinking of a way to escape a voice was suddenly heard, the voice was from a shout coming from a young man in the midst of the area.

“I challenge you to an Alctuz Battle!” the young man said to the battalion commander

The soldiers surrounding the area was talking among themselves about how crazy the idea of this young man; for one, it was because they had no reason to accept the challenge at all because they have no chance of losing in a feud right now.

“HAHAHAHAHA” a loud deep laugh was heard

The laugh seemed to come from the battalion commander that was amused by what Gus said

“Fine, I will relay your challenge to the Lord!” said by the battalion commander still tickled by Gus’s contest

Feld was really surprised by this development he couldn’t keep himself from blinking repeatedly a number of times.

Rei watched in awe as he saw how cool Gus was being; he had a totally different impression of Gus than that of when he first met Feld.

“Interesting, ask the man what he demands” said the Lord as he spoke to his communication bracelet, the bracelet was gold and had inscriptions and a large green stone.

The battalion commander then grinned and yelled at Gus “What are your demands!”

“Let everyone here go.” Gus said with a determined expression, he wished for harm to be repelled for those in his house and Louise

The commander then inquired to his Lord, and after a little while they came up with their demands.

“The people in that house killed a subordinate of mine; we can’t just let them off with just you.” the commander said with a smirk on his face.

“What do you want?” Gus replied with a slightly rude tone

“We want a battle with 3 members each you can have less if you want, if you lose we can choose to execute someone in your group and take that young girl Louise.” The commander replied with his conditions.

Gus felt a sudden loss of energy as he thought about fighting 3 representatives of the Lord by himself; even though he had the courage to plow through the wall of soldiers it was only momentarily for he was too consumed by his anger towards what was happening to his beloved Louise.

As his knees began to weaken and his gaze towards the ground becomes sharper a voiced suddenly reached his ears.

“I’ll fight with you”

The voice was arrogant and unreliable in tone and the person it came from was even more undependable but his wavering resolve suddenly got stronger and his spirit began to lift up slowly.

The voice came from a young man seemingly younger than himself but nevertheless not lacking in courage.

Gus’s eyes began to prey on Rei and as he stares at him longer his words became more and more unreliable; but he still believed that having him is better than not.

As Gus’s thought circled around another voice fell upon him and it was from a young lady. “I guess I’ll help.” The blue haired girl said reluctantly as she didn’t really want to carry the burden of having one of them die and Louise getting captured.

Even though Glace’s statement was somewhat unenthusiastic Gus felt that her words are more dependable than that of Rei’s

Feld didn’t say a word, although Feld knows how Alctuz works but he never entered it personally and has no practical experience.

“Give me a week!” Gus shouted rudely to the battalion commander

Gus wanted to see if Rei and Glace are up to the task which is why he didn’t accept the battle conditions right away.

The battalion commander then turned to his communication bracelet and after a few murmurs he then replied “5 days! You will be followed and guarded by my men and as insurance we will take custody of Louise and both of us will sign a blood contract for you not to run away”

Gus thought about it and the blood contract caught his attention.

Blood Contracts can never be broken, the law of heaven and earth are on the side of the contract and if one signs the contract in bad faith or breaks a rule in the contract the rule breaker will sent to eternal suffering. The contract itself is a magic spell of grade S but can be easily casted by spell casters.

The process includes using blood of both parties as a seal with the conditions written in a piece of Dragon Cloth. Dragon Cloth is only called dragon cloth or dragon paper but it is actually made from a tree called Nyphiclus, it is an uncommon tree but it isn’t rare and it’s quite easy to cultivate as long as the land is fertile enough.

Gus nodded at the battalion commander, after waiting for a while the battalion commander finally finished preparing the Blood Contract they were going to sign.

After reading the contract, Gus determined that the terms are acceptable. Gus had confidence in his intelligence and didn’t need to consult the other before signing the contract.

Feld didn’t stop Gus from signing the contract, if worse comes to worst he’s just going to escape with Rei and Glace by demolishing their way through.

The blood contract only applies to those who have their blood in the seal, the contract stated that there are to be two representatives of each party Louise, Gus, the commander, and the lord will put their blood onto the seal.

Since the names of the are already stated and 3 of the 4 people already signed, if the lord doesn’t sign it in 2 hours the contract will be nulled which was why after the contract signing the commander hurriedly left to get the Lord to sign with his blood.

The blood contract requires fresh blood so having the blood of someone else won’t do any good.

Gus then faced Louise that was behind him who whole time with the exception of the contract signing.

He was suddenly flushed as he looked at Louise’s eye that were fixed upon him, after a little while he started to get embarrassed because the circle of soldiers didn’t leave and was there to keep an eye on them.

“L-let’s go inside.” Gus said with his embarrassment barely hidden

Louise nodded and didn’t say a word as Gus held her hand while leading her to go inside the house. As they walked together, even after all the bad things that are currently happening to them Louise was happy in this moment.

When Gus went inside, all the others who stepped out went inside as well.

A kind of gloomy atmosphere surrounded the house, instead of celebrating the return of Gus since he was always traveling; what filled them was worry and despair because of the situation they are in.

The Crois family was caught in this mess because of Louise; it would not be surprising if they blamed Louise for being the reason of their anguish.

But not one of the Crois family members, not even one attendant felt that way towards Louise. She was indeed loved by everybody.

“Hey you, kid. What’s your name?” Gus said with a little rudeness but Rei understood that it’s just probably how he talks normally

“Call me Rei!” Rei replied normally

“I’m Glace.” Glace then followed

“The gray haired man is Mr. Feldgrau” Louise then said to introduce Feld

“They’re travelers, they helped me escape the first time the soldiers came” Louise told Gus for him to know why they are with them

“I see, thank you for taking care of Louise!” Gus said as he scratched his head, his rude expression suddenly disappeared and a gentler expression replaced it

Louise let out a smile as she looked at Gus’s transformation as she knows that this is the real Gus. He’s rude yet kind, strong yet gentle, a little underhanded but honest in his heart.

They all rested; the next day they started practicing.

Given that they only have 5 days to prepare for the Alctuz Battle Rei and Glace practiced together with Gus and gauge his skills.

*Morning*

Glace sparred with Gus while Rei practiced his Mana Materialization.

Glace was far from Gus when it came to melee combat, Gus was very agile and unpredictable; his being barefooted was a part of his fighting style.

Rowdy and chaotic is how one would describe Gus’s style; it can also be called wild and aggressive as he stays close to his opponent.

Gus’s stamina was amazing, although it wasn’t surprising for Glace as he sparred with him he keeps on jumping around on mana platforms and does some flips and kicks everywhere.

Even with that much movement Gus didn’t show any sign of gasping for air.

After a while as they spar, Gus won against Glace in their melee battle.

Gus wasn’t even exhausted; his stamina is even more formidable than that of Rei that is what’s inside Glace’s mind.

Meanwhile Rei walked towards the back of the barn, he saw a number of soldiers keeping tabs on him. He shrugged of the feeling of being intruded and proceeded to create a mana sword that is of less quality than of the swords he used to make.

The sword he made was similar to what Feld creates; it in itself is already considered a genuine mana sword.

Rei practiced throwing the swords at a huge rock he placed in the middle of a plain field at the back of the barn. His aim wasn’t bad but it wasn’t something to be proud of either.

After a few hours of practicing he went inside the house for lunch and as they were cleaning up after finish lunch a knock on the door was heard.

It was the battalion commander!

The commander’s name was Lion of the Flame; the name was bestowed upon him by the Lord himself. The Lord has a relatively large military force for a governor of a province that specializes in producing crop.

The Lord has 3 generals or battalion commanders, they are named: Lion of the Flame or Flame Lion, Sword of the Water or Blade Serpent, and Genoah’s Mountain; each of these generals are given personal armies that numbers in thousands. Genoah’s Mountain has the largest among the three for he has 5800 soldiers, second is Flame Lion with his roughly 3000 soldiers, last was Blade Serpent’s army that is about 1000 in number but has very skilled men.

Flame Lion is the Lord’s right hand man while Blade’s army was his special corps; the Mountain is tasked with Genoah’s security.

“I’ve come to take custody of Louise” Lion said with joy with his eyes but looked sharp and firm

Louise readily went with Lion; no other words were said as the two of them walked away.

Gus stared at her back as she walked away, he made a fist with his hands as if showing his determination to save his beloved.

Rei looked at Gus’s pained face and proceeded to tell him “I’m sorry I’m a little unreliable, but I assure you I’ll do my best to help you win” Rei said it in a straight face without any signs of dishonesty or pity

“Yeah, I’m counting on you.” Gus replied as he throws his rudeness out the window to focus on getting Louise back.

Glace watched the scene as she smiled, her stomach still hurt a little but she never showed a sign of it even when sparring with Gus; Gus didn’t even know that Glace was previously hurt

Glace decided to participate in the battle even though she’s hurt because in Alctuz as long as your body could channel mana you may use skills in Alctuz as if you’re in top shape and since Alctuz is in virtual reality her physical wound would not be a problem.

The pod where an Alctuz player resides in sucks his/her mana as the player uses skills. Mana continuously fills the body because mana itself as an object is everywhere and the soul sucks and contains the mana. As the players lie in the pods their mana that is sucked by the pods is slowly being restored by the player’s soul sucking the mana in the surroundings.

The pods cannot suck mana from the environment, the body serves as a machine that converts natural mana into energy similar to electricity but possess magical capabilities. The players are conscious while in Alctuz they are just induced to paralysis so they don’t do what the brain is doing inside Alctuz; which is why the players can sense their mana capacity in game.

The 5 days given to them passed by like a blink of an eye, the time for the battle has come.