99: Spar

As both Liane and Joanne positioned themselves to start, it was agreed they would fight to first blood, only Liane could use all her abilities, which confused me.

“Won’t that make it too easy for Liane?” I asked Jen in a hushed tone.

“No. Guild masters are usually some of the higher-leveled individuals, so there won’t be any real danger, and in a real fight—going all out, Liane wouldn’t stand much of a chance. Also, someone so keen to spar like this wouldn’t be lacking in tools to defend,” Jen explained.

“Just watch,” she added with a wink, and I turned back just in time to see Liane placing what I swore was a bit of the candy in her mouth before vanishing.

I thought it would be over in a second, but as Joanne stood still waiting, everything happened in a flash. A long blade formed, deflecting Liane’s dagger as she came out of the shadows in an instant. Following it up with a lunge, Joanne pushed the advantage—only to find air as Liane was already gone.

Again she appeared behind Joanne and, in the blink of an eye, Joanne had her water blade in exactly the right position to deflect Liane. This time Liane seemed ready for it, dropping low and, with a sweeping kick, trying to take Joanne’s legs. Joanne leapt back to avoid it—where Liane was already behind her, the dagger hitting something hard.

Again, Joanne jumped backwards, breathing hard.

“You’re very tricky to hold down, aren’t you,” she said, as Liane stood there with a wicked smile on her face.

“And you’re difficult to cut,” Liane retorted with a laugh.

After a brief laugh between the two, they launched back into it, and it was mostly Joanne defending from Liane’s strikes. I also noticed when I spotted Liane eating something else before continuing on.

As Liane came out of her shadow, a ring of water appeared around Joanne, quickly coalescing into teardrop-shaped shards that shot off in all directions. Liane immediately vanished again before it erupted. I was a little worried it would hit us—and they did, almost—however, by the time they reached us, the shards were evaporated mid-air by Crisplet.

“Ooh, Liane is forcing her to use some other abilities,” Micca commented.

I saw Liane appear from all sorts of locations, striking at Joanne several times but finding a water shield blocking the blow. The exchanges went on for some time before both combatants looked like they were running out of energy. Liane appeared in front of Joanne, daggers in hand, going for her chest.

Joanne predictably deflected the daggers. I was shocked as Liane’s whole body was knocked to the side—as if pulled along with the daggers. Joanne capitalised, and with the blade of water she stabbed into Liane’s leg as Liane fell to the side.

Only for that version of Liane to vanish, as a grinning Liane appeared behind Joanne.

“Got you,” she said, stepping back.

It was then we all noticed a tiny cut just on the right side of Joanne’s neck—Liane’s own leg completely uninjured.

“Nice trick,” Joanne said with a laugh, rubbing her neck where the small cut was.

“Decoy?” she asked. Liane just nodded.

“Well played,” Joanne said, bowing to Liane. “I don’t know how you lasted so long. Your stamina and mana must be monstrous. I was nearly dry myself.”

“I may have had some outside support for that,” Liane said, laughing.

“Oh? You can use potions in the shadows?” Joanne was looking at her in a new light.

“No, no—nothing like that. No potions at all.” Liane didn’t elaborate further, just basking in her glory.

“Anyone else want to try?” she said, looking us over, and I shook my head. No chance I was going to embarrass myself with combat. Micca likewise said no, but Jen seemed to consider it for a moment.

“Maybe in the future if we spar outside, but not down here,” she said finally.

“Ah, need more space. Yeah, it is very cramped down here, I understand. Well, I’m going to head upstairs and get changed. Do you all have your rooms in town sorted? If not, we have guild rooms available at this branch,” she said.

This caught Hari’s attention, who had been training George and Darren the entire time—although I did notice not a lot of training was happening while the sparring was going on.

“We’ll take you up on that offer. We’d like a little peace and quiet if at all possible, and after our entrance into town, I think we need to let things settle before we head back out,” he said.

“Makes sense. Well, if some of you want to follow me, I can get you all sorted—including the non-guild members—with a temporary pass,” she said, heading towards the stairs.

Jen, Liane, myself, and Micca all went towards the stairs as well. Hari stayed behind to continue training, not wanting to miss his chance, and Crisplet was observing Milo as he worked.

As we reached the guild hall, it was an absolute buzz of activity, and it seemed word of our entrance into the town had spread because the room practically fell silent as we came up the stairs. Almost every eye in the room turned to us.

“Back to your business unless you want to be given a job to kill and clean the razor barnacles off the cliff!” Joanne barked, noticing all the attention, but quickly everyone went back to their conversations or drinks.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Well, at least they appeared to anyway.

Approaching the counter, “Hello, Clive. Could you please register their entire group for the rooms on the third level? Several members are not guild members. If you’d like, I’d love another spar tomorrow,” Joanne said to Liane, who happily agreed, before we wandered off, leaving us with Clive at the counter.

Clive looked to be busy preparing several things.

“Before I escort you up, how many are in the group, and how many will need guest passes?” he asked.

“Three will need passes, and there are eight in total,” Jen explained, taking the lead.

“And how many animals do you need housed? We may need to use stables off-site to hold your horses,” Clive began.

“Just the five horses, thanks,” Jen replied happily.

“Didn’t you enter with another one?” Clive asked, looking up at us for the first time.

“I’m not entirely sure you want to treat Lily as ‘just an animal.’ She can understand everything you say and do,” Liane said coldly.

Clive just gulped. “Of course, of course. Let me show you to your rooms,” he said, quickly gathering his items at the desk, and he led us towards the stairs.

As we entered the floor, I quickly noticed our group would be taking almost the entire level as he showed the rooms we’d be staying in—going so far as to prepare a room for Lily as well. I knew she’d never use it, but I didn’t want to correct the poor man, who clearly looked nervous.