The duelists stood opposite each other. Dick was calm, eager to put his sword into battle. Being a magical artefact, it fully supported its master's intentions and glowed faintly with a blue light. For some reason his opponent was slowing down, the black armour-clad bastard was troubled by doubts, "It's definitely him... as Ramun described him. He remembered some weakling, but how could a weakling beat Minor, something doesn't add up.
"Hey, Conservative, are we gonna fight or what?" Dick was determined to fight quickly, his bold bandit spirit was ready to break out, but his rival for some reason delayed.
"You are definitely Lord Bondrewd." Unsurely asked the thug, the uncertainty giving his thundering voice, an incongruity. Dick swung his arms in a fit of anger and shouted.
"Fuck you, yes I'm Lord Bondrewd, I'm... I'm... I'm... I'm... I'm... I'm... I'm... I'm... I'm...!
"And you're not lying?" Once more the bulky man asked. Doubts were gnawing at him like worms on an apple.
"Ask your mum, I was just visiting her at my leisure." said Dick with a sneer on his face. "Go ahead and attack," the provocation was as old as the world, but even so there were few people who would not fall for such a simple ruse.
Bondrewd on the other hand just stared, the idiocy of the situation was already begging for a ceiling, but the Lord didn't get angry, the situation was beginning to amuse him a little. The danger was questionable. His sixth sense remained sepulchral silent. "Hmm there are two possibilities here, either he's weak or he has an artefact hiding his power, hmm interesting."
Dick had had enough, and he broke into an attack, "I'm too much in touch with Bondrewd, in the old days I would have attacked at once, but now..." He didn't have time to finish his thought, his mind was reacting to his opponent's actions, he had already unsheathed two axes and was in a fighting stance.
The bandit quickly approached and slightly crouched, slipping on the ground, struck a sprawling blow from the bottom to the top. But his opponent was not a simpleton either and blocked the blow with one axe and lunged back with the other. A powerful swing dispersed the air and struck from top to bottom, the blow went completely into the ground, of course, Dick was no longer there.
Taking advantage of the acceleration he quickly went straight as a poker of a blow and was already in the enemy's flank, for another blow. "Heavy armour is good, protection and all, but there's a crowbar for every iron ass." The bald man made a jab at the joint of the armour, the clang of metal spread over the area, the bulky man was slow and could not keep up with Dick under the acceleration. The blade was about ready to penetrate the flesh beneath the armour, but at the last moment it slipped sideways.
The return blind swing went into the milk, Dick was no longer there, the opponents stood opposite each other, giving each other a brief respite.
"Tough, but nothing I've got a present for you" Dick smiled and put his hand behind his back.
"Fast bastard, but nothing I'll get you." The thug was as focused as possible, his opponent was not easy, but he had trumps up his sleeve as well.
Dick caught his breath a little and sprang to meet the second round. He was quickly covering the distance, and was about to strike again, when he came almost at point-blank range. The thug threw his axe into the ground, and it immediately cracked, rumbling with the force of a thunderclap. The ground beneath Dick just disappeared.
"Fuck!" yelled Dick, trying to find a place to land, but there was no choice but to go forward, straight ahead, right into the face of the two big axes. The bandit jumped and found himself right under the thug's feet.
A massive axe the size of his head was already flying at him. "Oh, fuck." Dick shouted and swung the blade of his sword to the side, the blade of his sword shone like the night earth and a blue wave erupted from its blade, swallowing the thug whole, the impact was simply terrifying, the wave collided with the body of the thug and threw him a good ten metres away.
Bam...
Ramun's messenger ploughed a couple of metres into the ground, leaving a massive furrow behind him. His armour was red-hot, the magical energy of Dick's magic blade was simply monstrous, but the berserker himself was not badly hurt.
"You bastard!" shouted the bastard, actively turning his head to look for his mate, only he was nowhere to be found. The last thing he heard was the crackle of a smouldering wick.
"Fuck you." He heard the big man from somewhere behind him. Berserk turned around, ready to take another blow.
Bam...
The explosion went off literally in front of his face, toppling the berserker back into the hole he had just crawled out of. The place where he had just stood was covered in smoke and dust. But the hulking man neither heard nor saw any of it. His ears were ringing and his eyes were filled with smoke and ash.
"Ah fuck..." the berserker grunted, making an attempt to rise. Dick was standing right on top of him, and the tip of his two-handed sword had already passed through the chain mail between his helmet and armour.
"Maybe we should talk," the big man asked uncertainly. Dick was aghast at the suggestion, and was about to end the idiot's life, but he was stopped in time by Bondrewd.
"Wait, let's hear it." Bondrewd was already standing behind him and putting his hand on his squire's shoulder, said. The thug let go of his axes and exhaled heavily, his life was in no danger at least not yet.
"Come on then, tell us something interesting." Bondrewd hovered over the lying thug, his helmet covering his face tightly, even the eye slit seemed to be purely decorative. "Well, for starters, take off your helmet." Lord of Dawn added.
"No." Dick didn't like this situation and decided to cut into the dialogue. "Take off your helmet, or I'll chop you to pieces." Berserk let go of his hands in a panic and Bondrud undid the latch and removed the massive helmet. What appeared before them shocked both of them.
Ignoring logic and common sense, a small girl's head appeared in front of them, with red-red hair, a pretty face and weeping eyes.
"What?"
"Fuck?" Dick finished the sentence for Bondrewd. They were both in complete shock, both wondering if it was an illusion and what was going on.
"Ahh." The girl, deprived of her defence, sobbed, big tears. The men stood over the huge figure in a frenzy. The first to emerge from his stupor was Lord of Dawn, and driven by scientific interest began to remove his armour, ignoring the cries of his failed assassin.
Five minutes later a mountain of massive black armour and a little girl of about 12 years old crying lay before them. The men slowly looked at each other, both still reeling from the shock. They had expected to see literally anything: a healthy man, a living armour, another shifter, but what had happened had literally torn their patterns.
"So what are you going to tell us?" Bondrewd addressed the girl as delicately as possible, he didn't want to make her cry once more, because he wouldn't know anything, and he didn't want to use the old methods. He didn't know why, but he didn't want to. The memories of Mitya and her friends came to his mind, he was not ashamed, his experience had been quite sad and he did not want to repeat it.
"My z...name is Lana, I am the champion of the god R...amun," The girl stuttered, she was clearly pressurised by the presence of two angry big men, "I was sent to test you Bondrewd, my god wanted to know how strong you are." Said Lana and pointed her finger at Dick.
"Ha, ha," Lord couldn't contain his laughter, Lana and Dick looked at him with fear and confusion on their faces. Bondrewd didn't even think about stopping, holding his hands on his knees he continued to roar like a horse. He calmed down after five minutes and looked at Lana with a smile.
"Can you get in touch with your boss?" Lana was embarrassed, and with trembling hands handed him the ring, Bondrewd grabbed it and looked at it with interest for a few minutes. It was similar in structure to the one Audita had given him, only with a different symbol. Seeing no reason to wait he put it on and his world was plunged into darkness.
"Who are you worm?" The entity's voice was thunderous, but Bondrewd couldn't identify its source.
"I'm the one you wanted to test. And you know what you've disappointed me. I was hoping for a proper battle and you send me a little girl, care to explain?"
"How dare you, I'm the god of war and I decide who I send and who I don't. I was given wrong information about you," the threatening voice softened at that phrase. Ramun continued in a calmer manner.
"I have a business proposition for you, how about working for me, and the pay will be decent." Auditha's essay about supporting the local deities as much as possible came to mind.
"I'm listening to you carefully."
"It's very simple, you must go to the Baharut Empire and give my man that strange ring with a black stone, it's simple, you will get my blessing, the support of my followers, and a bunch of magical artefacts, how about it?" By the intonation of the voice, Bondrewd could judge, the voice counted on his consent.
"Why do you need a ring?" The Lord asked with scepticism in his voice.
"You don't need to know."
"In that case, I think I'll pass. I'm used to making sense of my actions, so I apologise."
"Don't hurry with your decision, your path will lead you to the Empire anyway, keep the ring if you change your mind, you can contact me." Bondrewd nodded silently.
"What am I supposed to do with Lana?"
"You can get rid of her, she's proven to be completely useless, even gods make mistakes sometimes." The world around her regained its colours, Lana looked at Bondrewd with hope, but his words broke her heart.
"Your master has given up on you."