Page 199 of I Ran Away to Evil 2
In past bouts, I felt like the lizardkin suffered from the problem that many fighters had: trusting your abilities over your own ability. Knolith was always jumping in with a skill or perk as soon as the fight began. This put his skills on cooldown long enough to cause trouble for the swordsman. I could wait until the opportune moment when he was waiting for his skills to be ready again, and strike.
[You have attempted to use the Perk:Force Palm. You have failed.]
My palm hit the lizardkin in the chest, and stopped. The new armor took the blow, and I felt like it would leave a dent inmebefore it ever gave way. I pulled back my hand, shaking out the numbness.
Only to realize it wasn’t numb at all—it wasfreezing.
Knolith smiled. “How do you like my new armor?”
“It’s excellent.” I activated my [Identify Craft] perk.
[You have attempted to use the Perk:Identify Craft. You have succeeded. Equipped:Dragon Heart Scales, a set of mithril scales sewn onto dragon hide. +1 to Elemental Magic. Durability 9/10]
“I got it in Green Oak Dungeon,” he said, puffing out his chest. “With my newfound strength, defeating the dungeon was—”
The lizardkin ducked my fist to his face.
CHAPTER 122
He’s a Legend
Brownie
Brownie had a front-row seat, and evenshesometimes missed the movements of the battle.
The lizardkin was as graceful as he was deadly, and her beastman spent a lot of time stepping side to side dodging blows. Itlookedlike Rufus took a hit quite a few times, but no ice appeared on him. Instead, Rufus used one as an opportunity to use his palm to strike the lizardkin on the chest.
Brownie had seen that move in Thistlecrick. Then, it had sent Knolith flying out of the ring and granted Rufus victory. This time, however, he was barely forced to take a single step back.
The lizardkin grinned.
When Rufus dipped into a sweeping kick, Knolith jumped. When Knolith almost stabbed Rufus in the thigh, Rufus redirected the sword with a shard of ice from the ring that he had picked up while in the leg sweep. The ice shard exploded into more ice, and Rufus grimaced as the shard in his hand grew just a little bigger, covering his fingers.
“Lemonade!” a voice cried out behind her. “Get your ice-cold lemonade!”
Brownie couldn’t pull herself from the battle long enough to order a drink, instead concentrating as Knolith showed off his new set of armor. Well, at least new to her. She wondered if that was evenfair.
A few seconds later, a tall glass appeared in front of her. It was handed to her by a lizardkin guard whom she’d met before. Not Sithli … Chikli?
“Thank you,” she said, though she barely blinked away from the fray long enough to take the lemonade.
“Complimentsss of Her Viciousnesss. She’s giving them out to everyone,dark blessingsss to her.” The lizardkin sat down on the bench beside her. It was the bench reserved for the actual combatants, but he didn’t seem to mind. Chikli ran his claws through his short gray mohawk and then said, “So you’re the one who has our commander general all riled up as of late?”
“If you mean we are madly in love and swooning over each other, then yes,” Brownie joked, knowing their relationship was different than that. She smiled at the slow way they’d grown together, getting closer over conversation and laughter and the journey. It might have just been a few weeks, but they’d gone so far past her desire to squish his paw beanies.
Knolith raised his sword to the sky, snow and ice and sleet summoned around the blade in a building flurry. He stuck out his free hand in time to parry a blow from Rufus.
The ice shard in Rufus’s paw didn’t encase him in ice like the direct attack from Knolith’s ice sword last time. Instead, the ice simply grew a little every time Rufus parried a blow.
He attacked twice more, trying to stop Knolith from finishing his sword arts. The ice had already crept all the way up to the beastman’s elbow. At this point, Rufus must have decided that was enough because he shouted, “[Secure].”
Knolith took a blow to the stomach where he had no armor to speak of. It must have done a number to his hit points. Brownie cheered with the crowd even as the lizardkin managed to free himself from Rufus’s hold ability. Knolith brought down his sword, still all covered with swirling magical ice, and Rufus leapt back to this side of the ring.
“Go, Rufus!” she yelled, always one to enjoy a good bout. “Go for the eyes!”
Her voice carried over everyone else’s, and Knolith looked past his opponent to stare at her with indignation. What could she say? She was a big, loud woman, and she loved a good knife fight.
Chikli laughed and drank some of his own lemonade. “I can see why he likesss you. Sithli likesss you too. And the kitchen ssstaff. And the Dark Lady. We’re all very happy for you.”
