Chapter 136 (1/2)

Chapter 136

Chapter 136: As Quickly As He Had Appeared <hr/>

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STANNARD BERWICK’S POV:

At the referee’s signal, the an

All traces of pompousness from Darvus disappeared as he carefully circled around Arthur As our leader’s childhood friend re in the same position, Darvus continued to side-step around hi

Darvus had in his hand two identical axes that differed only in color These teapons were precious faeneration to the strongest practitioner of their Clarell style of axe-wielding The two axes looked ht above the handle, not near the top The flat of the blades had strange s etched into both of them that didn’t match the simple, unadorned handles of the weapons I knew that Darvus was serious just from the fact that he took these weapons out I’d only seen this pair of axes once, and that was only because Caria begged him to show us

Darvus continued to slowly circle Arthur, always keeping a steady position, never crossing over his legs in between steps Arthur, for some reason, stayed completely still even as Darvus inched behind him

Sweat beaded down the sides of Darvus’s face as he stopped right behind his opponent’s open back The only sound inside the cavern was the faint rushi+ng of water fro subsided Everyone stared anxiously at the two contestants, not doubting the reason for Darvus’s hesitation despite his advantageous position

After another slow sidestep, Darvus lowered his position and launched himself at Art’s back I couldn’t help but become involuntarily drawn into the battle as Darvus closed the five-ap in just two quick steps

Darvus had both his axes loaded to his right in preparation for what looked like an upward swipe, but as soon as he was about to get in distance, Darvus abruptly veered course Steering clear of the seeinal distance, his forehead drenched in sweat as his chest heaved in and out for air

“What was that, Darvus?” a soldier cried out

“Stop being a wimp!” another voice shouted

Tessia, Caria and I exchanged glances, unsure of as going on with Darvus It hadn’t even passed the two-minute mark since this duel had started, yet he looked to be in worse shape than that one time our team had been locked in a battle for several hours

It was impossible for Darvus to be this tired after just a fewthat confused me

I’d been with Darvus as he mercilessly hacked away at A class mana beasts with cruel efficiency, and beat down adventurers twice his size and in the same class with a content s Even from here, I could ht the battle-hungry Darvus lacked: fear

At the discontent hollers of a fewout at the crowd to shut up

Taking a deep breath, Darvus lowered his center of gravity with renewed fervor in his eyes as he stared attentively at Arthur—who may as well have been a statue at this point

The edges of lowed around Darvus stoht foot as if he was about to leap toward his opponent, but instead, he stayed rooted as he swiped both of his axes upward in a cross

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Darvus's spell caused a trail of fine grain to follow his two blades before shooting out in a cross-shaped attack

As the crescent of pebbles shot out towards Arthur, I couldn’t help but adrains of sand didn’t strike fear into my heart, at break-neck speeds, they could put dozens of s opponents

The fine, earthen barrage reached its target almost instantly, but rather than poke holes or even break skin, the pebbles bounced off Tessia’s childhood friend harmlessly, as if a toddler had thrown the sand at hiht Darvus had failed to properly cast the spell, but the rerain that hadn’t landed har into the cavern wall behind him with an explosion of consecutive crashes Luckily, the spray hadn’t hit any of the spectators near it, because the area where Darvus’s spell had hit cruaze shi+fted back and forth in shock between Arthur, who had received the brunt of the attack with no harm, and the here a small cloud of dust had formed from the sheer force of the small cluster of rocks Everyone in the entire cavern was in a silent display of surprise and awe—everyone except for Darvus My spoiled friend had a discontent gri like that would happen

Arthur, on the other hand, finally turned around to face his opponent as he casually dusted off his sleeve where Darvus’s spell had bounced off of hied

With another annoyed click of his tongue, Darvus leaped back as he dug his axes into the ground once more at another atte his priceless weapons, Arthur raised a hand

Suddenly, the trail of grains that were trailing behindinto a spell Darvus’s eyes widened and I knew that somehow, his monster of an opponent had cancelled or stopped his spell fro

Darvus’s frustration was evident on his face as he bit down hard on his lower lip, his eyebrows furrowed into a scowl However, as Darvus continued to try and conjure his spells, frohost in front of hiazes with Arthur, whose lips curled up just a tad at the edges My wild-haired friend finally stopped atteap and swiped savagely at the bare-handed Arthur As his glowing axes created streaks of mana behind them, his opponent easily parried theain—siuard, but Arthur ht axe that was aimed at his head, and pivoted and parried the left axe that was aimed at his torso

My tea to his left before veering, his other axe rising to quick-strike to the right Arthur dodged the attack beautifully,a steady balance as his body dipped and weaved into a rhythmic trance

Darvus’s flurry of attacks, mixed with off-timed kicks and elboas relentless as the crowd—awked at the spectacle of one attacked with ed or parried everything perfectly without da

My attention had been solely focused on the two of them for the entirety of the duel, so when Darvus suddenly dropped his axes and fell to his knee, I couldn’t make sense of it

From here, it looked like iven up, but by the wide-eyed, stupefied gaze he had toward his opponent, I kneasn’t that simple

On his knees, Darvus raised his left shoulder—as if to swing his ar at his side He then tried to get up With his legsDarvus to fall to his back

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The crowd ed raised brows and si on? Why can’t I m-move?” Darvus stammered as he remained sprawled on his back

“You’ll be fine, boy,” a husky voice called out reassuringly “Right, Arthur?”

The familiar tone that ca Darvus to fall silent The rest of us all whipped around at the source of the voice

I let out a frightened gasp before i to my knee

Dresh's voice, laced with surprise and apprehension, rang from within the crowd “We salute you, Coaze re to look up until otherwise stated

That was just the kind of figure he was to all of us