Chapter 398

The first trick Ramli pulled when they next engaged was a simple one, but nearly fatal for Arthur. When their spears engaged, Arthur pushing with the end of his to get his opponent's weapon off-line and away from his face, spider tendrils of power reached out from his opponent's spear shaft.

It grabbed the weapon, held it tight and froze it, such that Arthur could not move his spear like he'd expected. His own block, meant to a small parry at the outer line against his opponent's inner line crossing should have been simple, a movement that did not require significant amount of strength.

Now, without the ability to move, with leverage twisted, his opponent bore down and angled his body, throwing his weight behind the attack and pushing forwards.

Arthur grunted, suddenly in a really bad position that forced him to twist and duck downwards, angling his body beneath the incoming pair of bound spears. It was a bad move though, for it placed him exactly where Ramli wanted him. A knee rose up, smashing directly into his face, crushing cheek and nose in turn and causing tears to spring to Arthur's eyes.

Another jerk and twist, as he stumbled away and Arthur was forced to give up his spear. The moment it was torn free, the bindings holding the weapons till dissolved, allowing Ramli to utilize the spear with full dexterity once more. He didn't hesitate, jabbing at Arthur who had to scramble backwards, over and over again to get away from the weapon on his hands and knees.

As he stumbled, finally, over crab-walking backwards, falling on his butt, he saw the tip end glow. Power coursed through it, sharpening the weapon with Focused Strike. What was a simple blunt spearhead, painful to receive but not fatal unless wielded without care became a deadly weapon in a flash.

Which was what Arthur had expected. 

Rather than try to block it or utilize another of his techniques, he conjured the Cloud Step beneath his right foot at a perpendicular to the floor. Giving firm footing, he only need shove off hard with his feet to skim backwards even more, the weapon chasing after him as he basically slid across the earth on his butt. 

It wasn't, of course, fast enough to dodge the attack entirely. The blade pierced skin and muscle, cut through his ribs but that was when momentum of Ramli's lunge ended. A second cloud, formed under the legs that had tucked in again had Arthur scoot off the blade and backwards, giving him a moment's reprieve.

Before Ramli could recover and lunge again, the glow of his own attack disappearing, Tun Rahman was there, slamming a meaty fish in a powerful backhand across the Climber's face. It threw the Second Chancer backwards, his voice roaring.

"Treachery!" the man snarled.

"No, my lord. It's not that... I was just overcome with the competition," Ramli immediately began groveling.

Of course, he wasn't the only one who'd taken advantage of that last minute. Arthur, clutching his wound, forcing himself to calm as he waited for it to clot and then heal, scanned the surroundings.

One dead. That other poisoned girl, her neck snapped from what might seem to be a bad fall if Hameed didn't look so calm about it. Both Nor and Arman looking the worse of wear, though at least they were alive. Wounds sporting on either side.

Excuses rang out, one after the other from the group for their actions. Tun Rahman looked incensed, about to explode and then, a flicker. He shook his head, looking around at the bodies lying down, speaking slowly.

"A pity. But sparring accidents do happen. We must find the traitor, and deal with them. We shall rest, for today," the man said, leaving Arthur to stare after him as he strolled off after getting the half-formed servitors to grab the corpse left behind. When one came near him, he pushed the arm away, standing up with effort.

"You survived," Nor said, strolling up to him.

He raised the practise spear a little with his free hand for the moment to sneer at his movement. She made no motion to guard herself or react to the threat, as she continued. "I knew I should have taken you. Ramli's always terrible at finishing the battle."

"He's tricky, this one," Ramli said. "And you speak as though you killed your opponent."

"Hey!" Asman cried, looking annoyed as he worked on bandaging his wounds. 

Arthur noted that Nor's own wounds had stopped bleeding, though he didn't see them closing. He, with his own grievous injury, chose not to speak, instead swaying a little as he staunched the bleeding and slowed it down with pressure.

"Anyway, he might still die," Ramli eyes narrowed at the blood around Arthur's hands. "Unless you have a blood healing technique like Nor?"

"Why are you telling my secrets?" she snapped.

"As though he has no eyes."

They began to bicker, a factoid that Arthur shoved away as he pushed himself to leave, heading for his own room. He got about a halfway there before Hameed appeared on his other side, first moving to take the spear Arthur was using as a cane away. When Arthur refused to let go, Hameed continued.

"Relax, we can't hurt you now. Not directly - the rules don't allow it. Tun Rahman would kill us for doing so."

For a long moment, Arthur considered the piece of information, debating if he could trust it. Eventually, he let go, allowing Hameed to also take the spear's place as support. Behind, he could hear the trio scoffing at Hameed and continuing their bickering.

"That's a messed up quest..." Arthur said. "But why the training only?"

"Training, meals, at night. Outside of that, if you can get away with it, you can; but those are when the traitor strikes."

"Oh..." That made sense, that there were times when someone was allowed to kill. It was probably why Rashid had gotten away with killing the other cultivator last night, but had been penalized once the fight had stopped.

“When. Next?” Arthur grated out, his breath shortening for a moment as they took the stairs to ascend the longhouse. It didn’t help that something in his chest was moving, shifting under pressure as it healed.

“Will you survive?” Hameed asked.

All Arthur had to offer was a grin. It would have been melodramatic, if he managed to do it with blood on his lips, but unfortunately – or fortunately – he’d managed not to buy his tongue or the inside of his mouth. Nor had the attack pierced his chest, such that he had blood to cough up.

Together, the pair made it back to his room where he was propped up against the bed, Hameed slowing down long enough to stare at Arthur’s enchanted spear. An eyebrow rose, as he regarded the weapon.

“Good weapon.”

“Kasih.” Arthur refused to elaborate further, not seeing a reason to giveaway information that he didn’t need to. Nor was he in the physical mood to do so, as bones clicked into place.

“Smart, to keep the healing ability hidden.” Hameed said, before continuing. “But you should have bandaged your face too, if you really wanted to do a good job.”

Arthur froze, remembering the cut across his face. It had scabbed over in the few hours left and healed, and while he hadn’t washed his face, it was obvious to those watching that it was healded over. A tad too fast, for anyone but someone with a good healing ability.

Arthur caught a glimpse of a smile on the boy’s face, in the reflection of his spear. Their eyes met through the reflection, and again, that grin widened before Hameed left, leaving Arthur a little disturbed.

The kid was rather perceptive. And Arthur still wasn’t entirely certain why the boy was helping him as much as he was.

Though he had a growing suspicion, born out of deep held suspicion and paranoia.

Which, obviously, meant it likely was right.