Now that she stupidly picked up a duel with another guild master because of the stupid charter and an even stupider sense of pride she was developing, Cless had no other option than to see through what see started. Which included winning that duel.

"I'll bet both my charters," Xander bragged as they moved from the main hall to the training arena at the backyard.

"And that was how he became jobless," Cless whistled and spoke like a bard telling a story, to the amusement of those following them.

The arena was not huge. Maybe six meters wide by fifteen meters long. Some sturdy-looking walls separated the combatants' area from the spectators behind them, with several gaps for easy access if needed. Cless looked around and started applying her buffs. Mage armor, Stone armor, Protection, Blessing, Shield of Faith and also a golem for good measure.

Xander seemed unimpressed. He was stretching up, doing even some stretches that should be impossible for a human being. Cless thought she might be able to do those kinds of stretches, but never with a skirt.

"Ready for the beating of your life, girl?" He taunted.

"Surely, why not. I don't see who is going to deliver it though."

Xander drew his twin shortswords, doing an elaborate crisscrossing flourish as he settled the blades in his hands and showed himself off. Cless also drew her broadsword, assuming a basic sword stance.

"I'll let you have the first blow, girl!"

"Nah. Double or nothing on your two charters and debt, how does that sound?"

"Surely, why not? I don't see who is going to deliver it though," He mocked her previous speech. "You can still come at me first. Spell or sword, you can choose. I won't move until you do the first contact."

She remembered a buff she seldom used. "Resistance."

Cless decided to get the show on the road and charged forward. Xander's stance was relaxed but the tips of the shortswords seemed like two snakes focusing on their prey and ready to spring and strike. She approached him and struck at his wrists.

"[Perfect Defense]!"

Xander used a technique where his body seemed to blur and move away at the last moment to avoid her blows. Cless swung three times more, but he always flowed out of harms' way with a smirk. She felt a surge of pricks all around her body. Confused, she halted.

"[One Thousand Cuts]! — [Armor Piercer]!"

"Bulwark!"

He blurred and the shortswords seemed to come at her from all directions. She felt dozens of stinging wounds over her body before her golden area of mitigation sprung up. She also noticed that he didn't land a single hit on her Earth armor, going for the joints and other exposed parts. The stings continued and whittled out both her Protection and her Bulwark spells.

"Heal!"

They were shallow, however. Cless could restore herself with a single spell. She felt a passing numbness but shaking her head, she felt alright again.

The golem was clumsily trying to strike and defend his mistress while Xander was occupied chipping at the stone construct, without minding Cless.

"Magic Missiles!"

She thought the homing arcane projectiles could be a good counter for the agile fighter. Cless' spell created the maximum amount she could with a single casting, sixteen, and they flew toward her target, arcing around to strike from multiple points.

"[Spell Parry]!"

All for naught. Cless froze to watch as his swords deftly blocked every single projectile. She might've missed an opportunity to overwhelm him, but she only noticed when he stopped to grin at her, moving sideways to avoid the golem's fists.

"Like what you say, miss? There's much more where it came from!"

That was infuriating. She had dozens of Skills and still, one guy could just counter everything about her. What was the use of all her hundreds of abilities if it didn't matter when it counts? Was she using everything wrong?

"Don't frown like that, I'd hate to be the guy that made a girl cry!" He teased her.

And the answer that she came to was that she was, indeed, using everything wrong. Not everything. She could use her own Skill and the Skills she got from the gnomes very well, and when she thought about how Skills came to she realized why. She could understand the Desire behind these Skills. She had her own memories and some of the gnomes' after all. She could understand the heart that wished for those Skills. If she were to become able to use the other Skills, she would need to gain that same level of understanding about the others as well.

Cless gripped her sword as she withdrew in a fast-thinking mode. The world around her slowed down as she used her mind to think clearly. She could feel the texture of the hilt in detail because of the [Enhanced Touch] Skill. Could it help her wield the blade better? What mindset would cause someone to wish for the ability to feel a touch better? Someone that wished to caress a loved one, maybe? Or one that traversed the darkness, with only his fingertips for eyes. She could feel her broadsword, feel its weight, its swing. She should use this feeling to adjust her grip to maximize the sword's power.

"Hey, don't freeze. Here I go again! — [One Thousand Cuts]!"

He came. She felt dozens of tingling sensations, [Dangersense] telling her where it would hit. She had to do something with the information, so she cataloged it under an inventory of hits with [Perfect Accounting]. The unease waned and she had few moments before acting.

Cless danced. Now that she could see where each of the not-a-thousand blows was coming from and the order, she trusted her mind and her Skills. [Dancer's Grace] and [Perfect Accounting] calculated a perfect choreography to evade the blows she moved, weaved, bobbed, spun. All with the grace and poise from [Lady's Countenance]. Some of his blows would land as she took one to avoid another five or six, but this time the Earth Armor wasn't bypassed by his other technique that must have a greater cooldown or cost to use.

She even sensed a perfect spot for a riposte.

"Flametongue!"

The black sword came alight just as it rose to strike on an upward swing. She focused on the feeling of the blade, adjusting her one-handed grip to hit with all her strength. Not too weak, not too stiff.

"Aaargh!"

Xander was overcommitted on his deadly flurry of stings. He took her slash on his flank the sword cutting and hissing as the yellowish-orange flames met his flesh.

"Holy Bolt!"

Cless kept her other hand free to give her balance during the dodges but now that she broke his routine, she brought that hand behind her sword so his sight would be blocked by the flames and shoved a Holy Bolt toward his midriff.

His black armor sucked in the golden projectile of light as if it never existed. She felt that even the light around him darkened and soon she was unable to see. Cless stood for a few seconds in complete darkness, only the sounds of Xander's breathing and drinking something followed by glass breaking violently as if he had quaffed a potion and thrown away the bottle. She also noticed that the world around them went completely silent. She could only hear herself and him.

"Thank you for feeding my armor, dear priestess. My Infernal Leathers need to eat Holy power to activate their dread abilities. Now die in the darkness."

She felt he was going to strike at her kidneys. Cless waited and thought of her other Skills and how they could help her. [Underdog] was silent. Xander wasn't five levels above her. He only had one thing going for him. His agility and combat techniques. The five seconds were up and she twisted around, feeling the shortsword thrust cut her dress but miss her flesh. She could tell where he was from his scent. All she needed to do was to neutralize his strength and defeat him.

Cless swung her sword, the flames without light because of the armor's power. She knew where to strike. She knew what to do. Right as the blade came less than a hand's width from him, she pulsed [Fear Aura] focused on him. Only on him. She couldn't tell if the crowd was affected but she wished not.

The swishing of Xander's swords stopped. He had no Wisdom, and his Agility-based build meant he had some Strength and little Intellect. Unless he had some technique or Skill to overcome fear, he was frozen. Cless bet on that and completed her blow. She felt the sword connect and then after some resistance move free. She took a step sideways and brought it down again, severing another limb.

She turned around and sent a roundhouse kick at his head. She felt her boot connect with soft flesh and a refreshing smack as her kick pushed him away and sent him sprawling. She could tell Xander was airborne, flying into one of the walls of the arena.

Cless returned to her stance and focused on [Weavertouch] to mend the scores of cuts on her clothing and her House Magic to clean the blood, grime, dust, and sweat from her clothes. The darkness disappeared.

She saw by her feet two severed forearms holding shortswords and what was left of Xander in a heap where the wall met the ground. She knew he was alive. Cless sheathed her sword and calmly moved next to the man.

"Heal!"

Wager won. The charter for the Timberwolves and Shadowblades delver guilds now belong to you. Xander owes you seven hundred and twenty crowns. You can use this debt to purchase his assets worth more than a pound of flesh. Here's the list:

5,000 Exp: 1 crown.

C-Rank Skill, [Shadow Eminence]: 600 Crowns.

— When in an area of dim light, shadow or darkness, Increase your base Agility by 20 + half your level and your base move speed by (20 + level)%. You can see perfectly in darkness or shadows of any kind.

Infernal Leather Armor: 200 Crowns.

— This leather armor was crafted from a strong Infernal beast. It absorbs and neutralize Light and Holy spells to power itself. The user can discharge the power to create a bubble of inpenetrable darkness where light does not exist. The duration and size of the bubble depends on the amount of energy absorbed. Unused energy dissipates harmlessly in 24 hours after the absoption. While in the darkness bubble, the armor can repair itself.

01 Stat Point: 5 crowns.

Cless liked the armor very much, but she picked the Skill and twenty-four Stat points. She made sure to bind him to secrecy regarding their deal. She turned the unconscious Xander around and fished the charters from his pocket. The crowd watching the duel recovered from their stun and erupted in cheers.

She turned to the crowd and found who she wanted. "Hey Gilean, is your former bid still standing? I'll knock it down to three sovereigns and ten crowns if you pay it now."

The archer beamed. "Four sovereigns right now if you throw in that loser's charter as well!"

"We got a deal." The archer jumped over the wall and flashed four whiteish cromed coins. Cless picked them and she knew they were the real deal. She took the three charters, made sure they were the right ones and handed them to Gilean.

"Thanks for your business, guild master." Cless nodded.

"Now it sounds less absurd that you defeated Steppenwolf at night. I don't know what you did in that darkness, but we were sure you'd be as good as dead. The only thing giving me a sliver of hope was that none of your guild members seemed worried." Gilean chortled. "Hey, dumb-heads. Guild master Cless of the Blind Eye here and her non-human friends are my friends as well. Think twice before you piss her off or you might end without even a way to jerk off like our dear friend Xander over here.

Cless looked at Xander and had an idea. "Gilean how much does a healer charge to reattach a limb? Is a hundred crowns per limb too much?"

"Usually not but emergency battlefield treatment carries a premium. Besides, the limbs were severed with fire. It is hard as hell to reattach."

Cless walked back, picked the two severed arms, crouched by the still unconscious Xander and with her sword, cut off the cauterized flesh on both the stump and the severed limb. Pressing it together, she used her overpowered Heal spell to reattach them. After examining the work and feeling a pulse on the fingertips that regained their healthy color, she used another couple Heal spells to treat his concussion and removed his leather armor.

"The treatment is complete. He will be hale after a night's rest. I'm taking this as my payment for the healing." Cless sighed. "My business here is more than done. Blind Eye, we are leaving for a well-deserved meal. Guild masters, fellow delvers, until the next time!"

They walked out. Stronger than when they entered. Wiser. The delvers paused and parted to give them passage. Cless knew she painted a huge target on her back and that some of these idiots would come for her.

Let them try.