The Duchesses

Chapter 70 : Eirene Festival (2)

"Ilemia and Luicasha?"

"Duchess Medea, we have been looking for you everywhere," Philo can't hide his excitement for finally finding the woman.

Max and the others move their hands gradually to the side, slipping their hands to the swords as they wait for the appropriate moment to ambush her. It doesn't matter what happens, and their goals are not to win the competition but to pay for the prices of the spilling blood.

"It is amusing to see Ilemia and Luicasha be an ally for this battle," Medea mindlessly said, swirling the leave in her hand.

"It is necessary to make allies on such an important battle. However, I can say the same to you since you are alone here," Philo also does the same as Max and the others.

"Yes, it is a good strategy for the weak ones," she concludes, slicing directly into the man's ego.

"Who are you to say we are the weak since you are hiding your team, waiting to ambush us?" Maximus interrupts, looking around to find any hint of the other men.

Duchess Valimos laughs suddenly at the remark since they are too slow to get it. She covers her laugh with her right hand. Besides, she had her share of fun playing around with them earlier. The men look at each other, bewildered by the reaction. Their hand started to lose grip on their swords.

However, they snap from their thoughts as Maximus immediately runs over her while the Duchess still laugh. The Duchess hasn't reached her swords, and they storm towards her with murderous intention. There's no way she could get out of this.

Maximus reaches for her first, and his eyes sparkle when he swings the swords closer to the woman's body. But, it never comes. Instead, the Duchess reacts faster, ducking his attack quickly, using her body weight to give a hook on the man's jaw, causing him to knock out cold. Maximus' body slumped on the ground as the other three men, without hesitating, approached her.

The men go forward to swinging the swords hard at full blast, cutting the air instead of Medea. Then, in a blink of an eye, she slips behind them, giving a deadly blow on the side of the man's neck, knocking the air for him to gasp and go into a knock-down mode like Max did. Then, while tackling the other man, she uses her speed, putting more force on her kick against Philo's aide, dislocating his jaws from the impact.

Philo watches the three men on the ground with thud sounds and looks back at Medea. The woman finishes the three of them in seconds. Something about the amethyst eyes is so dangerous that it makes his toes suddenly curl and the goosebumps on his body hairs. His stance to hold the swords got sloppy, and he stormed towards Medea again but failed.

Duchess Valimos easily knock him down without even letting her swords out from the side. She wants to kill them, but it is a lot of work. Besides, she would get an earful from Hera for it.

"You are supposed to run away since I have no intention to hide from anyone," Medea squats down, taking the badges from their coats and simultaneously causing Ilemia and Luicasha to be eliminated in less than an hour.

"Did Her Grace knock out four adult men without drawing her sword?" Lord Julian gasps, whispering to another Lord after reaching there as he finishes with Medea's order.

"I know her remarkable swordsmanship skills since Lady Natalie learnt from her and from the search party. But, it is astonishing to see it in person. My Lady is really learnt from the best one," Lord Apollo also looks at Medea in admiration.

"Oh, did you guys finish putting the flag and the horses?" Medea shifts her attention to them, leaving the men cold on the ground as if nothing had happened.

Maximus groans in pain quietly, feeling the excruciating pain across his jaws. Then, he suddenly remembers what happened earlier, and his eyes immediately land on Medea's back.

"It's now or never!"

The man jumps quickly, grabbing the sword on his side and letting his sword do the work.

"Behind you!" Lord Apollo said, drawing his swords, but it was too late since Maximus was already there when Duchess Valimos turned behind at that moment.

Their body collides as the red liquid oozes out between each of them. When Apollo looks at both images standing still, his rapid heartbeat almost causes his ribcage to crack. Maximus steps back from Medea after that, coughing out blood. Since when does Medea draws her sword and pierce his heart?

His eyes dilate, looking at the woman in front of him, grinning in evil. Then, finally, he falls down and slumps to the ground lifelessly.

"I don't kill anyone who doesn't first kill me."

Duchess Valimos watches over the body, putting her sword down again. Her fingers slither to put the badges on her coat before turning around in bloody face towards her teammates. Apollo subconsciously reaches his pocket, pulling out a handkerchief to give to the Duchess.

"Thank you," Medea extends her hand to reach out the handkerchief wiping off the blood from her face. Now, she is preparing for the next badge hunting.

On the Eirene ceremony's place

The chime sounds of the bells, stopping everyone in every of their movement. It would mean either two things: someone got disqualified or injured. However, Natalie was getting anxious when she heard the sounds indicating it came from the North. Ares and Hector harden, feeling something inside them is about to burst about the sounds.

"Ilemia and Luicasha have both been injured in the North. Therefore, both are disqualified from the competition since the Angelos, commanded by Duchess Medea, now own two badges. The Vazoels followed right behind with one badge, disqualified the Svetzia from the battle in less than one hour!"

The rest of Ilemia and Luicasha groan in frustration for not being able to join the battle. Some of them throw a vicious glare at the Angelos as if it's going to make them enter the arena. Some wonder over what happened there.

"She is safe," the Duchess of Light manages to let out her quiet relief but cannot be visible enough under many eyes.

Her ruby eyes turn to the man next to her, Marquess Hector. The woman pretends to get something behind, twisting her body to mumble with the man.

"Hector, breathe. She is fine," Natalie wants to calm the man, who is probably thinking about his hideous memories from the war a few years ago when he was a commander of the Empire.

Hector is drowning in his thoughts, trying to gasp for air that continues to leave his lungs underwater. Everything around him started to be deafening at the news, fearing the same thing to happen over and over again.

Furthermore, he also saw Medea almost die in front of him. Simply put, he has been under trauma a lot in the past. Yet, no one knows about it except the House of Alwyn and Medea herself.

"She is going to win this," she reassures the man, who is now controlling his breathing from it, although he hides his hands trembling on the other side.

The crowd started to have mixed opinions about the Angelos taking the lead, contrary to what they had expected. For a rookie like Duchess Valimos, taking both teams simultaneously in a short amount of time is impossible.

"She takes two teams already?"

"She probably has the best knights on her!"

"There's no way Medea would take them all."

Ares started to agitate, shifting from his chair to think about it. What's going on?

"Luicasha and Ilemia's knighthood skills cannot be taken lightly. But, she took them out less than an hour? No, it must be her luck and some tricks for her to get it," Ares convinces himself, but deep inside, he knows something is entirely wrong.

The Emperor leans back on his chair, switching his legs to cross it again. His fingers tap on the armrest, thinking about what just happened. But, ultimately, he lets it off again, not wanting the feelings to cloud his vision.

That's until all of them turn their head again at the sounds, wondering what might happen next.

"Don't get hurt, Medea," Natalie crosses her fingers.