Chapter 169: Duelling The Tyrant

Poppy moved first.

The giant pink sword came down in a vertical cut that split the air with a hard crystal scream.

Kalon sidestepped the attack with ease.

The blade bit into the polished stone floor and left a glowing trench where he had been standing.

Heat from the impact flicked across his boots, giving him the faintest amount of pain and taking down his health by a few units.

Nothing to worry about.

Poppy tore the weapon free without effort and chained into a horizontal sweep aimed at his ribs.

Kalon dropped under it, felt the displaced air cut across his hair, and rolled clear as the follow-up thrust punched through the space his chest had occupied a fraction later.

If his agility was any lower, he might have been skewered.

Astral Counter was still on cooldown from the husband’s reflected blast. Until it returned, pure avoidance was the only safe option.

Of course, he had other skills. Many of them.

But using such skills would not only kill the woman too soon, but it would also alert the rest of the Cupidians.

"I said I came to talk," Kalon called, circling left along the broken stone. "The invasion ends either way. You can still choose the easy version."

Poppy’s black eyes tracked him over the rose crystal edge of the sword. The chains draped across her naked body chimed with every hard step. Her crystal crest burned brighter with each missed kill.

"You assaulted my commander. You crippled my husband in my own chamber. And you want conversation."

She advanced. The sword became a blur of pink arcs, high, low, diagonal, then a sudden thrust toward his throat.

Kalon slipped each line by the minimum margin.

A cut grazed his sleeve and burned the fabric open. Another nicked the outer layer of his forearm before he could fully clear it. She was fast for someone swinging a weapon that large, and the chamber’s open floor gave her room to use every inch of its reach.

"Daisy made her choices," Kalon said. "Your husband attacked the moment I arrived. I answered. None of that changes the core problem. Veylora is not yours to harvest."

Poppy answered with an overhead smash that cracked a floor panel into spiderweb fractures.

Kalon vaulted sideways off the broken stone and put a support pillar between them for half a second. The pink sword sheared through the pillar’s edge and forced him out into the open again.

The cooldown edge on Astral Counter finally eased.

Poppy felt the shift in his posture even if she did not know the skill by name. She committed to a full-body rising cut meant to bisect him from hip to shoulder.

Kalon activated Astral Counter, caught the structure of the strike, and redirected the force down into the floor beside him.

The returned impact blew a shallow crater in the stone and staggered Poppy’s footing for the first clean moment since the fight began.

He did not attack her yet.

"I’m still willing to talk," he said. "Still offering you the chance to end this without me walking through the rest of your government."

Poppy’s crystal chrest glowed. She came on harder. The next sequence was better, feint thrust, reverse edge, knee following the blade path, then a wide crescent cut that forced Kalon all the way to the chamber wall.

He used Astral Counter again on the crescent, feeding its power back along the blade. The kickback jolted Poppy’s arms and made the heavy sword dip. Her bare feet slid half a step on the polished stone.

Kalon used the breathing room differently this time.

He stopped purely dodging and looked at her properly while they circled.

"You know, the armourless look suits you," he said. "Those chains don’t hide anything, which is great. An ass like that, tits like that, no wonder your cuck husband has no problem being your dog."

Poppy’s next cut came faster and angrier.

"Shut your mouth."

Kalon slipped the attack and kept talking, voice taunting.

"I’m serious. Daisy’s built for war. You’re built for people to stare at while you kill them. The chest, the ass, the way you move in those chains, it’s deliberate. You want every enemy distracted before the sword lands."

"I said shut up!"

The giant pink blade became a storm. Poppy abandoned some of the cleaner form and swung to finish things.

Kalon took a shallow cut across the outer thigh and another across his upper arm. Blood slicked the fabric. He kept his balance, kept the counter ready, and kept the words coming because each one was visibly pulling her out of perfect control.

"You have to admit that I’m right. Even your lower regions plump and pretty."

Poppy screamed something wordless and threw a thrust with her full weight and anger behind it.

Kalon caught it on Astral Counter.

This time he did not dump the force into the floor or the walls. He stepped in along the dead line of the blade, palm open, and drove the reflected power straight into the centre of her chest.

The impact landed square between her breasts.

The air left Poppy in a broken, involuntary sound. The giant pink sword slipped from her fingers and hit the stone with a heavy crystal clang.

She folded around the strike, staggered two steps, and went down hard onto one knee, then fully onto her side. One arm clutched across her ribs. Her pure black eyes were wide with pain and sudden breathlessness. The decorative chains pooled around her on the cracked floor.

Kalon stayed standing over her, breathing calmly, blood running from the shallow cuts she had managed to earn.

Poppy tried to rise. The broken rib stopped her cold. A sound of pain cut through her teeth, and she stayed down, crystal crest dimming, naked body curled protectively around the injury while the enormous pink sword lay useless a metre away.

She was forced into the talking position now whether she liked it or not.