?Before Ning could even leave the shop, there were already people outside waiting to go along with him. When he got out, he was bombarded with questions about what he was going to show this time and if it was as good as the Lightning Trident.

People seemed to have truly loved the Lightning Trident and were more than saddened by the fact that they couldn’t get their hands on it.

Ning simply told them to wait for a match. They would see it easily in the arena today.

People still talked with him, conversing for the sake of conversation, trying to get close to him, trying to learn who he was and where he was from. They quickly saw that Ning wanted to give no answer as to who he was exactly and moved away from the topic.

Rova walked along with him, glancing around at the few people that surrounded them. Her eyes fell on a few and she closed in on Ning to speak in a hushed voice.

‘I think 3 of those are from the 4 shops,” she said. “I think I’ve seen them before in the shops or when I went to try and get a job.”

Ning didn’t look back. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Everyone is free to see what I’m about to do. Not like I can stop them now, can I?”

Rova said nothing and simply nodded. “What have you made though?” she asked. “Is it the bow from last time?”

“No,” Ning said. “The bow is a little too… strong to just show like this. I have made something else. Something that can be considered a step above simple.”

Rova was very curious now.

They arrived at the arena and even there he could feel a few gazes on him. He made his way to the registration hall when he registered for the 45th match.

‘I thought I had arrived early,’ he thought but gave no more thought to the match number. It was actually better if it was during the day. People would be free to come watch the fight.

More people tried to make conversation with him here and Ning was more than happy this time. However you could pass his time, he would.

The people that gathered around him were mostly male, and they were all from one noble family or another, all wanting to make friends with him. He was invited to a few of them, claiming they had a party held for one of their family members entering the Institute.

Ning only told them he would give it some thought.

Numerous battles were fought on the stage below, one after another, and soon enough, it was Ning’s turn to fight again.

“Let me be off then,” he said, and everyone excitedly let him go.

There was nothing he had sold in his shop that had been any good at all. It was only the Lightning Trident that had brought everyone here. However, if whatever he was going to show was going to be half as good as that, they would gladly throw money at his feet.

Ning arrived on the stage, and once again the silence of the stage surrounded him. He looked forward and saw his opponent. It was a girl with blue braided hair wearing tight-fit clothes made of mostly cotton, but she was wearing thick armor around her upper body made of fire.

She held a slightly curved sword in her hand, the blade of which was serrated in an oddly wave-like pattern. The bright yellow sword was most definitely made up of light.

‘This should be fun,’ he thought, bringing out his own weapon. It was this weapon that most people were here to see.

What came out of Ning’s hand was… a very unorthodox weapon.

Two short scythes appeared on his hands, like curved daggers that were barely any big at all. The two scythes lay on each of his hands, neither of them showing anything other than their shape.

The scythes were completely black with almost no texture to them at all. From far away, people couldn’t even see where the blades ended and where the handle began. Not that there was any difference in the first place.

Ning prepared for the battle, and the girl got ready for the fight to start as well.

As soon as the fight began, the girl attacked first, sending a pillar of light flying toward Ning.

Ning put the two weapons in front of him and blocked the attack with just them. When the light disappeared, he took one step back, and to everyone’s surprise, threw one of the scythes directly at the girl.

The girl hadn’t expected Ning to throw the weapon, but she was as alert as she could’ve been, so dodging was easy. The scythe flew past her and she gave it no attention.

She turned around, trying to use her Fire armor to attack this time when suddenly Ning jerked back his other scythe. Her confusion lasted only a second as something struck her from the back.

The girl barely managed to see a black smear along her vision, flying past her. “What?!” she couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. What flew past her was the scythe.

“How…” she couldn’t understand how the scythe was pulled back. She hadn’t felt him use any Essence at all.

She looked at the two scythes again and wondered if they were tied together. But she couldn’t see any rope or thread at all.

Ning threw the scythe once again, and the girl parried it aside. This time, she paid careful attention to everything. New novel chapters are publshed on o(v)elꜰre.et

She looked at the scythe she threw away and saw nothing tied to it. However, she did see something else.

The scythe flew back at her, and the girl easily dodged this time, sending back a ball of fire that streaked toward Ning even as the scythe returned to Ning.

At that moment, a wall of shadows emerged from right where Ning was and the fire was swallowed with nothing remaining.

When the wall receded, the girl became aware that the weapons her opponent was using were made of shadows itself.