Death, Devotion, Dissonance

The day after, Evin was woken up by Bella, who quickly brought him to the training area that the guards used. The fight he promised her was supposed to happen today, so despite the drowsiness from spending half the night talking to Bella, Evin forced himself to wake up, though with little success.

With sleepy eyes, he saw a large group of men and women doing morning jogs and with Bella's urging, joined them. He had to stop after a lap and a half due to his leg. It felt weird to him, as he and Bell both forgot that it was made of metal and was recovering for a brief moment. In the end, Evin decided that it was a good thing, as it was proof that he was getting more and more used to his new leg.

Anyhow, as for the guards, Evin was a bit overwhelmed at first, wondering if the Viscount actually employed such a large amount of mages to protect his house. But after about ten minutes, he realized that only four of this 20-man group were actual mages, with the rest being normal guards.

Bella gave short introductions to them when the group stopped to do stretches and pair exercises, making Evin wonder how they didn't talk about this during the long chat of yesterday.

One was the short, beefy guard that insisted on checking Evin's leg, who was named Parsh. He was someone who liked to fight close quarters with a mud armor, which Evin guessed where Bella learned her unique fighting style.

Another was a bald, tall, muscly woman, who donned quite a few scars on her face and arms. Evin was also sure that he'd find a few more beneath her cotton shirt. She was a Northerner named Daishan and despite her ferocious appearance, she was the guards' Heavy Mage, meaning, she was mostly responsible for hitting people from afar (mostly with will/energy infused pieces of rocks).

These two were Evin and Bella's opponents for the day's mock fight, as they both shared the same hatred towards Evin, for snatching away their little princess.

There was another woman named Elune, (a much feminine blonde compared to Daishan), who was an all-rounder in the party and was usually responsible for healing and supporting. She reminded Evin of Leanne a lot, but he also noticed a few crazed grins appearing on her mouth, which he didn't have an explanation for yet.

And finally, there was Komarokh, who was mostly responsible for Talismans, illusions, and similar headache inducing magics. The man rarely fought, according to Bella, and even when he did, he mostly just kept the matches free of magic, but Bella said that the rest of the group were always respectful to him.

These two, unlike the previous two, didn't really care for Evin's relationship with Bella, and were even supportive of it. Komarokh placidly, and Elune openly. 

After the morning training was finished, Parsh and Daishan both approached Evin and Bella, both wearing smug faces. 

"You let a weak-ass prim-boy like this snatch you away like this?" Parsh said loudly. "Can't even run his ass two laps around the damn place, hah!"

"Heat-sick lowlander!" Daishan added in her heavy northern accent.

Evin never heard the insult before, but he guessed it was something that Northerners used to insult the rest of the World. After all, the North was famous for its high altitudes and cold weathers.

"And he wants to spar with us?" Parsh continued. "And he doesn't even have the guts to ask himself!"

"Will topple and die the moment he gets atop Cataract!" Daishan spoke in broken Western.

Evin of course, did not feel the need to respond to the taunts, instead finding a weird sense of synergy in the way they spoke despite there being none.

"That's my boyfriend you're talking to," Bella cut them off with a prideful smile. "And weren't you two the ones who constantly nagged me to fight him? Aren't you ashamed to be bullying someone twenty years younger than you are? What happened to that warrior's pride you love so much?"

"Come on, Bella! Look at the way he carries himself! He's obviously some donkey-ass sleazebag. Probably lied his way into making you think you like him. Maybe pulled off some sad bullshit-ass backstory about his foot to tug at your heart a bit."

"Untruthful man!"

"Don't think I'll fall for the same tricks your exes used to empty your pockets, old man," Bella said tauntingly, and before Parsh could reply, added. "Enough words. You wanted to settle this with a fight, so here you go."

So, without further ado, the four combatants prepared for the fight. The rest of the guards clumped up in a relatively safe corner of the area and watched with interest.

The details of the fight were mostly the same as Bella arranged. Evin and Daishan stood in a small circle roughly 40 steps away from each other, and aside from casting spells, they weren't allowed to move out the circle or fly, and whichever side that failed to do so, lost. 

<Endra?> Evin asked inwardly. 

<Yes, yes, I'm here,> Endra replied and started taking over Evin's core.

Evin debated trying to go through the fight by himself, but a part of him wanted to show off to the mage guards, so he asked Endra for help. The latter did not mind, and even sounded excited for the fight. It silently began working on its Hard Air accelerator, loading it with stone to use as bullets. Evin also brought some metal bullets just in case, but he hoped he didn't need to use it today.

As he was preparing, Bella, who was covered in a mud armor like Parsh, came over to him and spoke. "Now that I think about it, maybe we should've agreed on a plan before the fight."

<Tell her to keep Parsh busy. I'll try to push Daishan out of the ring myself,> Endra ordered and Evin did just that. 

Bella nodded in reply, humming. She seemed to like the simple plan, if it could even be called that.

"The match will start on the count of three," Elune declared and began the countdown.

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