Chapter 372: Duel
Chapter 372: Duel
Eugene felt as if Liam and Grace were challenging each other to see who could make the most absurd statements.
The boyfriend came first with that well-spoken request for compensation. Then, the girlfriend had added insult to injury in quite a literal fashion.
Grace would allow Liam to release Eugene, but only if the latter agreed to a duel for the Brigade’s leadership.
That wasn’t even to give Eugene hope. Grace’s question had highlighted how she believed that Liam would tear his face apart no matter what. Everything was to preserve the spring’s integrity.
To make things worse, Eugene didn’t have many options. He could refuse, hope to survive the sacrifice he had to make to escape Liam’s grasp, and fight from there, but that was disadvantageous in more ways than one.
Obviously, the injury was a factor. Losing one eye wasn’t great, but it would be better than fighting with a bleeding hole in the skull. Moreover, Liam would still hold the initiative.
The location was another disadvantage. Cave-ins could be dug open, but a spring was a valuable area to cultivators. If news of the hill’s destruction spread, the Brigade would see countless greedy eyes turning in its direction.
Lastly, there was the Brigade itself. Holding a group of lone cultivators together demanded an iron fist. That wasn’t a loyal team. It was a pack of desperate souls who had gathered around someone they had no hope of defeating.
Strength was the higher authority there, but Eugene was showing weakness. Chances were, even if he gave the order, his men wouldn’t try too hard to defend him out of fear of becoming like the headless corpses on the carpets.
That was Eugene’s home, one he had conquered, developed, and defended, but those invaders were forcing him to play by their rules.
Still, as much as Eugene looked and spoke like a brute, he wasn’t witless. Liam had more than proven how trying to reason with him was hopeless, but Grace was another matter, especially since she had exposed her weakness.
"I won’t accept such terms," Eugene scoffed. "You want my throne? You wage something against it, or I’ll happily bury us all alive."
"We aren’t so shameless as to request a duel without waging something in return," Grace calmly responded. "If you win, the Axe Brigade can take all our belongings."
Grace’s smile vanished. She crossed her arms, adding the last part of the wage. "And you all can play with me until I break."
Before a single lewd look could fall on Grace, a primal, chilling presence filled the chamber. There was no release of Qi or technique involved. Liam’s aura had simply changed nature, reeking of a bottomless killing intent.
When Eugene said it, the threat was empty. It was just more disrespect that Liam was already punishing.
Yet, Grace muttering those words made everything more vivid, summoning all of Liam’s Hatred, which didn’t have a limit anymore. To make things worse, Liam even knew what the topic implied now.
The sole idea of Grace suffering from that kind of treatment urged Liam to flood the world with his all-devouring feeling. He hated her, too.
Liam finally connected what Grace had meant when she said that she considered herself currency, and he hated it from the bottom of his heart.
Grace had been the first to make Liam laugh after he lost his happiness. She was unbelievably smart, funny, and able to take Liam’s insanity in stride, turning it into strength for him.
Truth was, Grace was immensely precious to Liam, his current hatred highlighting just how much.
Liam diverted his feral gaze for the first time since stabbing Eugene, but Grace kept looking forward. She was the only one who hadn’t reacted to that shift in atmosphere, urging Eugene to provide an answer.
"But neither of us can use rank 3 weapons!" Eugene argued.
"Do you think we would-?" Grace began to refuse, but Liam interrupted her.
"Fine," Liam declared, refocusing on Eugene. "No rank 3 weapons."
Grace felt like strangling Liam again, but didn’t break her stance, leaving him the last word. Truth be told, the second part of the wage was exactly to rile Liam up, and his reaction had been more than satisfactory.
Eugene’s remaining eye darted between Liam and Grace, eventually uttering a stern "Deal".
Liam almost couldn’t believe what he was about to do, but Grace helped him. She gently grabbed his bicep, pulling. She didn’t apply any strength, but the message was clear.
Against every reasonable instinct, Liam actually released Eugene’s face. Things were still tense, and the two exchanged a long, cold look, but Eugene moved slowly, eventually placing the axe on his shoulder.
"Haven’t you heard?!" Eugene cried. "We are having a duel!"
The chamber burst into motion. The tables emptied themselves, the cultivators occupying them rushing outside. Eugene remained behind until everyone had left before circling Liam to do the same, paying extra attention not to make any sudden move.
The fan had hovered behind Eugene throughout the process, but returned to the pair once he got a few meters away. Liam and Grace also turned at that point, following him, but the former didn’t forget to catch the weapon in the meantime.
"Protect her," Liam ordered, releasing the fan right afterward.
The fan released one of its metallic scoffs, as if saying that it would have done that anyway, proving itself by hovering above Grace’s shoulder, where she caressed it.
Yet, Grace also added a whisper to make sure only Liam heard it. "Should I kiss you, too, later?"
Liam’s gaze snapped at Grace, glaring at her. He was still livid, his hatred unable to subside. He had never been so angry at someone dear to him, vastly outclassing what he had felt with Lucy and the level one wolf.
Still, Grace ignored that evident fury. She and Liam followed Eugene in silence, leaving the intricate underground world and climbing the hill afterward, cultivators keeping their distance but encircling them all the time.
Eugene stopped at the hill’s peak. It was a relatively flat area, still barren. His underlings had created a loose but vast encirclement, isolating fifty square meters where the duel could happen.
"Your woman must retreat now," Eugene announced while wielding his axe with both hands.
Grace was still at Liam’s side, but he nodded at her now, so she retreated. She didn’t join the encirclement but stopped at a spot halfway toward it.
"The fun I’m going to have with her once I’m done with you," Eugene laughed as soon as Liam faced him, his huge figure leaping into the air.
The jump was a shocking expression of raw strength. The soil trembled as Eugene charged at Liam, his huge axe lifted above his head, becoming the tip of all the accumulated weight and momentum.
The ground cracked and exploded as the clash unfolded. Liam’s feet dug into the soil, pushed down by the incredible pressure that had slammed on him.
However, to Eugene’s surprise, no impact noise resounded. He was in front of Liam now, both hands on the axe’s body, pushing it down, but his weapon wouldn’t move, bringing his gaze to its sharp edge.
A vibrating membrane had enveloped the hand that had faced the axe. The weapon had pierced through Liam’s Qi Repulsion, landing on his palm and spilling blood. Yet, all its momentum was no more by then, only achieving a superficial injury.
Nevertheless, the axe remained a magical item, a peak rank 2 one. Liam’s blocking it through a martial art had been an impressive feat, but the weapon could do far more than cut.
Liam’s figure dug deeper into the ground as the pressure on him multiplied. The axe’s weight suddenly surged despite Eugene not having used any technique.
That was the item’s ability. The axe’s weight could rise and decrease sharply, even to the point of becoming impossible to wield for most rooting experts.
However, something odd happened. Eugene’s animal instincts screamed in fear when he saw what looked to be strands of black Qi escape the fingers pressing on the axe’s sharp edge, his remaining eye going wide as the metal groaned and bent.