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n“You both want to be like Orion. No, it’s better to say you want to BE Orion, am I wrong?” She smirked, causing me to lightly shrug in agreement. “Well, that’s the problem. You have too much pride to be him and Cy doesn’t have enough. Yours is the most challenging one though as there will come a point where you will need to give up your pride in order to succeed or possibly straight up survive… or would you rather die clinging onto that useless pride of yours?”

nI stared at her, grimacing at the words that had just come from her mouth. It was annoying but she was right. It was so **ing annoying that it scraped the back of my brain, egging me on, telling me that she was right, yet that piece of nobility deep within me just shrugged it off.

n…

nAt that moment, when Bella awoke on the dawn of her fifty-seventh death, something shifted within her. When the man appeared, ready to slaughter her once more and see her suffer, he was disappointed but also pleased to see her down on her knees, forehead placed against the floor, moments away from begging for mercy. 𝒪𝑣𝓵xt.𝕔𝒪𝚖

n“Mercy. Please have mercy…” Those words. Those slimy words filled to the brim with agony and conviction flowed from her lips like water. It ran up from her throat like it was nothing but carbon dioxide. The merman smiled with pleasure. Yet, at the very moment, little did he know, Bella was smiling as well. An uncanny smile unfit for the chains of human flesh.

nThe man smiled as he saw the woman groveling at his feet. He lifted up his foot and slammed it against the back of her head, pressing her face even further into the ground while he soaked in the radiant pleasure wafting through his body.

n“Kekeke… at least you know your place.”

nAs he turned around, the woman got up upon seeing the man gesture for her. Bella’s expression was one of terrifying nervousness that forced her to follow every move of the man. He walked, and she walked. He talked, and she talked. He breathed, and she breathed. It was as simple as that.

n“You’re quite the pretty thing, aren’t you?” The man smiled, cupping her chin. And with a display of suppressing emotion, Bella gulped down a drop of saliva and leaned in, her face welcoming the man. “Maybe I’ll take you as my wife…”

nTheir lips nearly met, but at the last second, Bella diverted and landed her chin on his firm shoulder. The man chuckled, surprised at the woman’s actions but was strangely welcoming to it as he slowly pushed her off of himself to get a better look at her.

n“I’m not that easy…” She smirked, slowly stepping around him while feeling his chest from inside his robes. And as she swirled around, exactly one-hundred-eighty degrees, small pink tattoos shaped into that of wings embed themselves under her eyes, imprinted onto her dark eye bags.

n“Oh… trying to seduce me with one of your skills…” The man continued to smile but this time licked his lips, pulling her in by the waist and cupping her chin once more.

n

nThey took a step back. Another step back. And another. It was almost like they were dancing, a contemporary art of death. Bella leaned in with the man’s hand cupping her chin, and then, their lips met. Her right hand squeezed, balling into a fist, only to relax upon feeling both of their feet stop, right at the edge of the arena.

nThe man, arrogant and so horribly reliant on his skills and strength, leaned in, using his tongue. Bella tried to retreat her head, but the man swerved his arm around her hips and placed his free hand on her long green hair, balling it and grabbing it before pulling her in.

nThis match-up was unfair. In every single way, when comparing their statuses, the water lord outclassed Bella in every category. Even their intelligence had a chasm between each of them, yet, at that very moment, everything was set up in her favor.

nFrom the man’s arrogance to the man’s ruling perspective, she could use it. And the only variable that made this entire thing possible was a weapon that she had brought from the beginning rounds. A simple iron sword that she thought nothing of, but as soon as something snapped inside her, everything came together. A plan that was so quick that even Orion would have no choice but to applaud.

nHer foot shuffled under the leather handle and as soon as the two came apart, saliva disgustingly strung from their lips, the man had been drawn so deep into her skill: Eyes of Seduction, that he could only focus on her. His pupils had practically turned into hearts and his guard was instantly let down.

nTing… SWOOSH

nEchoes of the sword clicking up from Bella’s foot resonated through the chamber of waterfalls and death. Her right hand instantly caught the leather handle and with one inward swing, that dug up from his solar plexus and straight into his heart, the man smiled.

n“Did you think I seriously didn’t know of the presence of that sword… but how pitiful…” the man smiled, seemingly unphased by the weapon lodged into his chest, causing Bella’s face to crumble with fear. “Yes… that’s right… no normal weapon can damage me- oomph…”

nAll of a sudden, he leaned forward and coughed up a mouthful of blood, his pupils shaking with surprise. And as his face paled, his head tilted upwards, only to see Bella’s fearful expression wiped from her face, replaced with an uncanny grin that sent shivers down his spine.

n“You… bitch…”

n“I got lucky, taking such a weapon. And, if you were aware of its magic-negating properties you would have taken it away from me at the beginning of each death of mine… on top of that, you were careless. If you were a careful person you would have taken it anyway even without knowing of its properties so don’t blame me…” Bella’s expression darkened into a cold blank sheet of emotions. “… but blame that tiny **ing brain of yours.”

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