Accidental Reaver

While Luke swished Xera around in wand form, his footsteps echoed against the marble flooring.

Bits of natural sunlight shone against his face, coming from the glass inside the Defier's Branch. He stopped before the reception desk. Persephone greeted him in her typical trio-colored suit.

"May I be of assistance to you, Defier Luke?" She asked with an edge to her voice.

"Aruna handed off the rest of the challenge notices to you. Do you still have them?"

The brown haired woman raised an eyebrow before smiling sweetly, "I do. Should I fetch them for your review?"

"I'd like that."

Rising from her chair, Persephone opened a wooden file cabinet labeled Challenge Request. Catching a snippet, Luke noticed that the sections dedicated to him and Aruna were bursting with files, but the other seven Defier had scant few. Aloysius and—to no surprise—Musai entertained zero.

Heaving the pile reserved for Luke out the cabinet, Persephone settled it on the top portion of the reception desk.

"There they are. I threw out the shameless ones like tier 3 hunters challenging you to a death duel. These are all within the rules."

"Anyway to call these challengers over? I want to change the price for me accepting a duel."

Persephone pointed to the lines of servants waiting hand and foot on Luke, "Each of them would be happy to undertake a simple task like alerting a challenger within the city for you, Defier Luke."

"That wouldn't put them in danger or anything, would it?"

"There's little chance of that. If the challenger isn't within the city, the servants would return to this branch to inform you."

Nodding slowly, Luke took the challenge requests and said, "Time to get to it."

Signaling with his eyes, Luke had three servants, a human maid, tora butler, and elf groundskeeper, follow behind him. Using the plush chairs on the ground floor's back end, Luke set the papers on the nearby reddish wood table. He instructed them, "Today, I'm going to need the three of you to flag down some of these challengers I'm interested in dueling against. Your job is to inform them I will accept their request if they put up items I'm in need of rather than the typical gold deposit."

The human maid, a younger woman with wavy blond hair and brown eyes, asked, "These items you need are what, sir?"

Luke looked up at the metallic and glass ceiling and thought, "Good question. For now, Armor Tokens and Beast Crystals will suffice. They can give me the equivalent value in those to the gold wager they've already placed. Should they refuse, don't bother staying to convince them." Luke patted the pile of papers before him, numbering in the hundreds, "There will be others who are more flexible in return for what they see as an opportunity."

Thus, Luke created a short list of requirements for him to accept any of the requests. One, they had to be available before this late evening when he already had plans. Two, they needed to offer up Armor Tokens or Beast Crystals instead of gold, and three, the challenger couldn't be below level 50, tier 1.

Anything else would prove to be a waste of time. Each challenger would find a 'surprise' cost to challenging him—the theft of some attributes. To prevent another Janeus, Luke set a limit of roughly ten to twenty attributes but saw no reason to spare those who served themselves up so arrogantly.

Did he ask them to duel him? Look down on him? Or, as many did in their personal remarks, insult him?

He sure didn't. Luke would show loving-kindness through a vital lesson.

"Pick your battles well, fools."

The butler settled down simple tea and snacks for Luke to enjoy while he reviewed challenge after challenge. Eventually, Luke sifted through thirty of them. He handed a stack of ten to each servant, "Out of all these requests, these thirty appear to have the capability of meeting my criteria. If ten per is too much, bring along a friend or two. Try to get this done as fast as possible. I want to do multiple challenges before nightfall."

Each servant took their assigned stack, taking his directive. Three workers turned into thirty. Soon, Luke had an improvised network sifting through Sylen, tracking down the unsuspecting victi-, ah, challengers, within the city.

Meanwhile, Luke took the remaining challenge requests, somewhere over two hundred, and came to Persephone. He curtly instructed, "Bar these lunatics from wasting my time with their requests again. Most are either highly overestimating themselves, wagering too little, or their demands are too one-sided like that one idiot demanding I resign from the Defiers if I lose to him."

A dark thought entered Luke's mind, Perhaps Rune has more dirty work to do.

Persephone accepted the pile and began to burn them with candlelight one by the one, the ashes going into a container settled beneath the candle. She assured Luke, "New challengers will be strictly reminded requesting you will come at a greater cost than before."

Returning to the plush chair, Luke waited, chatting with Xera and eating light snacks. Moving about now would just make the servant's job harder. He'd make his next move once the thirty were alerted or unable to be safely found.

Right as he started to enjoy a short peace, a battle-tested, lithe, monic woman hugged him from over the chair. It was Aruna. Luke could hear her steps incoming but knew better than to run away.

"Causing a commotion, little brother? Mind telling me what you're up to? It's been a while since a Defier mobilized the servants like this. Most of us have little use for their menial abilities."

"They're scouring the city for the challenges I'm considering."

Aruna's eyes lit up. She released Luke and sat on the chair opposite him, hands her in lap. She leaned forward to say, "Tell me more. How many are you thinking about?"

"Thirty. The rest were a waste of time, people asking for too much in return for too little sacrifice on their end."

Putting a leg over the other, Aruna said, "Yeah, you'll get a lot of those. I've run out of decent challenge requests myself lately. The number of people in the second tier and up are only so many. I'll have one or two decent requests a week now if I'm lucky."

Remembering the pile of requests centered toward Aruna in Persephone's cabinet, Luke said, "Persephone kept a pile almost as large as mine for you."

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The monic Enhancer bit on her lip, "Don't remind me. I keep them around in case I get bored, but those are, like you said, a waste of my time. There's no way they could challenge me or offer up enough valuables for me to grace them."

Having nothing else to do, Luke conversed with the family-obsessed monic, "Shouldn't you have better things to do? Every other Defier is busy, Iona won't leave that realm, and the other one that was around previously, Annika, is nowhere to be found."

"I'm part of the Lesus Tower Team. That pig-headed elf put all but the top five members on break. Meaning I'm unable to access parts of the Tower I need to reach. Sleazy Eldacar is rampaging up there with him while I'm down here taking care of my baby brother."

"Interesting way of putting it. I can take care of myself, thank you."

"You know you like it." Aruna put on puppy eyes, which worked well on a monic's features, "Can I watch you today? Be a good little brother and help me with my boredom."

"Can't you work on a technique or something?"

"Peh, you make it sound like it's something you can just do. Like you meditate and 'get better,' who does that? The only way I grow is a battle on the edge," Aruna revealed with a toothy grin.

Luke kept to himself. Not everyone had Wayfinder, Affinity Attributes, and a new technique to work on. Aruna's point about battle proved true in his case as well. At various critical points, he grew Elementalization in key fights. Aruna seemed to revel in the same method.

The Reaver preferred his current mix rather than overly favoring one over the other. Musai rarely battled and easily overshadowed the rest in power, so the mindful and battle methods both beheld merit.

"So you're saying you're stuck on your techniques?"

Aruna's smile cracked. "Middle Expert on my leg and arms control technique and high Adept at Wind Elementalization. It's been months since either budged an inch, I took to asking the others for help, but it's more of the same. Keep trying."

An initial wave of servants returned to Luke, reporting the various responses their quarries gave. Out of the current six being reported on, one rescinded the request. Another refused to go through the trouble of switching from offering gold to Beast Crystals and Armor Tokens. The last four readily accepted the new terms; each awaited him at the arena.

Getting up, Luke nodded at Aruna before leaving. The woman took it upon herself to follow, swearing she had to see the show. Unbothered by her insistence, Luke let her. Xera began to hum in delight through her crystal. Even Whispering Tome seemed to swish up and down while floating lazily over Luke's shoulder, showing rudimentary excitement.

While leaving, Luke informed the returned servants that the rest could report their findings on a piece of paper and leave it in his dorm room for later review. After the six acknowledged his request, Luke tried to remember the nearest portal building.

Aruna seemed to read his mind, "I know the portal building network better than the back of my hand. Come along, lost duckling."

Assuming his acceptance, Aruna sped along, cutting through the Defier's branch, out the building, and down the street to the left. After skipping down a side street, she pointed out a purple swirled building, the iconic mage guards sternly protecting the entrance.

The line for teleportation wasn't all that extended this time. Luke and Aruna settled into the back of the line, paid the portal fare to the arena minutes later, and vanished with a flash of light.

__________________________________________________

Reddish orange clouds overtook the green aurora-lit sky.

The air had settled around the two Defiers. Aruna went over to a vacant Interface platform, tapping in the air for a moment, a silver ticket appeared. She ripped it, and a blue portal swallowed her whole.

In the upper echelon of the blue-white colosseum, Luke saw several obscured spectators. Upon further scrutiny, one appeared to be waving back at him. The mystery of how one got up there with no apparent stairs was solved.

A short distance from the inner arena stood four people, each an arm's length away from each other. Behind them, a blue barrier softly hummed with power.

Luke thought, There must be a battle going on right now.

He peered out to the sides of the island on which he stood. The two other landmasses in the distance shrouded over, connected by chains. One of the four people nearby interrupted his lazy observation, a monic, by the sound of their heightened voice.

"What is the meaning of this, Defier? Am I to believe you are going to challenge all four of us at once?"

The other three, a tora Warrior, elf Monk, and human Rogue, perked up their ears, each exchanging glances.

Luke brought out a contract, one similar to what Janeus signed. That being, they couldn't go against his interests in general. More centered toward anyone who dueled him would be silenced from speaking about their experience in fighting him. The other parts underlined what they would have to wager in return for him accepting a challenge.

Currently, that became Beast Crystals, Armor Tokens, of which he limited to ten, and high quality crafting materials. Luke knew there could be other valuable items he could want, but most cost far more than he could reasonably ask for.

Since none of the requests were like Janeus, challenging for Xera, the materials he could extract from his coming victims were diminished. The Reaver came up to the Interface platform, inserted the contract, and its information disseminated to the internal contract it already had a template of.

Closing shut Whisper Tome, Luke brought the quasi artifact to his left side and said, "Each of you are second tier hunters. As a minimum of courtesy, I'll be taking one on at a time. When one is over, the next can come."

The tora Warrior ruffled his orange fur, "You have a way of deciding who goes first, unworthy?"

That had been a term going around, coined by Luke's abnormal induction to the Defiers. Various hunters in the second or third tier believed Luke to have achieved what they could not—being a Defier—with pure happenstance. Only the rule of expertise in a technique gave Luke a higher status than them.

With most self-assured they were more capable than him, plenty of resentment stewed in the Hunters Branch.

Luke could see their grievance for the minor amount among them that genuinely were more powerful than him. It would likely bother him, too, if the situation were reversed. The number who met this odd situation was shrinking by the day. For the majority, their confidence in being a stronger hunter was based upon higher levels or a higher tier, both of which had recently become rapidly diminishing barrier for Luke to overcome.

By now, Luke knew only the strongest second tier hunters could still suppress him. Janeus was proof enough, a Spell Sword firmly in the upper middle within the second tier hunters.

And was he a real challenge?

No.

To the Reaver's surprise, none of those top-tier hunters had challenged him. He figured that the best of the best were too busy preparing for the Tide to care about challenging a dark horse like him.

Finally returning to the tora's question, Luke shrugged, "Go by the order in which you four showed up. Once the current fight ends, ours can begin. I put my specific terms into that contract. The Interface should've already integrated it. Familiarize yourselves first."

The elf Monk, with black hair, simple leather, and cloth armor, bowed to Luke, "According to your terms, I would be your first challenger, Defier Luke. I am Thaniel, level 70 Monk. My wager against you is five Armor Tokens, each effective to level 40. Does this satisfy your terms?"

Luke grinned, "That'll be five out of the ten total I allowed. Looks like others may have to come back again with Beast Crystals soon. For you, that's more than fine. When the current duel is over, let's begin ours."

Coming over to the Interface platform, Luke placed a palm on it, and a prompt appeared.

[Slotted duelist detected. Arrival: Early. Please wait for current duelists to end their bout]

Then, another came up right after.

[The other duelist, Thaniel, accepts the duel request. Please review the written contract detailing the wager between duelists. If unanticipated changes to the contract have been noticed, you are advised to reject the contract]

Upon his acceptance, a thin white tether appeared between Luke and Thaniel. The monk bowed again, walking along the side, hugging the barrier—going to the other end to face off against Luke when the time came.

Luke went through a similar process with the other three challengers waiting around. No white spiritual tether appeared this time, and the messages added one additional detail.

[As slotted duelist is already reserved, other duelists must wait in queue until the reserved bouts are cleared]

Announcing the end to the current duel, the blue barrier surrounding the inner arena grounds turned into motes. Coming to the edge of the structure and going down into the dueling arena, Luke jumped down directly, looking to save time.

A faint trail guided him to a circle on the edge. Already, the two previous duelists were gone.

Flaring out Xera, Luke applied the typical Infusion and an attributed Essence Bond. Iced runes began to crawl up onto his skin, and frost flowed out the young man without effort.

A countdown began, and Luke made out the elf Monk, Thaniel, in his designated circle on the inner arena's other side.

[02:00]

Xera bubbled up, "This is going to be so much fun. Let's battle for hours. I need a stress reliever."

Luke confidently stated, "No, it's going to be over in minutes. If he's lucky."