Chapter 227

It was only after a couple hours of making everything he needed that he left, the pockets of his jacket filled with tools with his knife on his belt, and a long metal pole in his hand.“Relax Myriad, I’m just going to talk.”

“I hear having one can really help facilitate a conversation. Anyway, don’t worry about me so much. My goal is just to hurt the guy a little bit and then give up.”

He tuned his god out as he got to his destination with only a few hours before sunset and admired the church of Eneth. At two stories tall, he couldn’t imagine how many rooms were in it considering its breadth, being by far the longest building in town. He couldn’t say he especially cared about it, but he did his best to take it in, especially the statue of the powerful lizard at its front he knew to be the god it worshiped, before going to its doors and letting himself in.

As a church, it wasn’t unusual for it to be open for anyone to access and he was able to see it in all its glory, though he wasn’t impressed. Sure, there was art and enough finery to give a feeling of wealth, but only one word came to mind as he looked around.

It was simply too over the top for his taste, especially considering that from what he understood, the race that worshiped him was in low enough numbers that he couldn’t have compared in power to someone like Anailia, it was obviously a display to make the god look better than he was. Shaking himself from the thought, he went up to the nearest priest to get his attention.

“Excuse me, I met with the demigod Ather after the quest was complete, he told me to come meet him at the church after I finished some business of mine,” He said lightly, lying through his teeth. A small part of him worried about what he’d do if he wasn’t believed or turned away, but that didn’t seem to be an issue as he was rushed with what seemed like urgency to him. In a world where so many gods ruled and commanded the faith of the people, it was unthinkable that someone would so brazenly lie about a meeting with the son of one, and as a priest who worshiped his father, he knew better than to make him wait.

He ignored the sound of his god sobbing in his head as he came into a large dining room with far too few people in it given the space. There were a few priests around to act as attendants, Eneth’s apostle standing to the side while the only two sitting down were the orion otherworlder and Ather himself.

As he entered he received mixed looks, but the only one he focused on being that of the demigod, wearing one of confusion and annoyance. “Why exactly are you interrupting my meal?” He asked as the priest who led him there began to realize something wasn’t right.

Before anyone could do anything though he pulled the necklace he’d made earlier from his neck and threw it to the table, an act all around understood the significance of as he spoke out, putting all of the arrogance in his voice that he could.

“Pick it up asshole, I’m here for a duel.”

He was led to the back of the church to keep it away from public eyes. While one party could forfeit the fight, the priests had no doubt who would win, all they wanted to do was keep any in the public from seeing the son of their god kill a person. Even if it was a duel following the laws of the land, for someone so strong to go against the nobody who challenged him, it could only be seen as bullying the weak.

When he had discovered that guns were a bit harder to use than he’d initially suspected he had to admit that he couldn’t help but lose some interest. Sure, in the right situation they could be useful, but he simply didn’t care too much to go beyond refining what he’d already made a bit. Normally he’d have Thera to rely on in their hunts and he was more interested in developing complex enchantments to go with his tools than to just make a projectile weapon from his world, even if it did have a magic twist to it.

When he’d decided to give the challenge for a duel though things had become different. He was going against the child of a god, he couldn’t approach it halfheartedly, so with that goal set he knew he had to do better, with what he’d decided on essentially being a sawed-off shotgun, something that would trade some of its power for a better spread of the shot he’d created from melting down his cursed ring, with each pellet of it being enchanted with the best effect he could for something so small. Considering his aim he wanted that spread to help mitigate the chance he’d miss, but if his god wanted him to use the other one so badly then he supposed he could compromise on just this and change it for the one on his hip, reaching down as he went to do so.

He said, relief filling his voice as Ather spoke up at the same time, pointing his spear at him.

“As much as I admire someone without the pride of a warrior coming out to do such a thing, there’s really no need. I don’t need someone who would do something like that in town on my team, you can keep her even after I win.”

His hand stopped as Myriad went back to sobbing and cursing, stretching out his shotgun as he did. If it was okay for the demigod to point his weapon before the fight started then it was okay for him too, meaning that even before anything was called he could carefully take aim, letting himself fall into the full effects of sacrilege and dismantling to figure out exactly where to go about it.

“Blah blah blah, all I hear coming out of your mouth is dumb crap. You care so much about a warrior's pride? You’re about to find out what a craftsman’s pride can do.”

The apostle Felth stood to the side, his own spear in hand as the one in charge of witnessing the duel as a few other priests stood nearby, each ready to see Ather suppress Ben for his disrespect. There were no stakes, nothing on the line. As with any duel in the land, the point was simple; work out grievances and establish a pecking order.

“Both parties are here to prove their worth, under the eyes of Eneth I announce this duel begin!” he called out, bringing his spear down as he did as everything happened at once.

Ather charged him as soon as the words were spoken while Ben did two things. He pulled the trigger of his gun and activated the barrier in his shoes.

The blast of the shot made contact exactly where he hoped, hitting the torso and legs as blood exploded from the wound, but as he expected from the demigod, Ather wasn’t done. He threw himself at Ben after the attack, not slowing for an instant and seeming to not realize he’d been injured at all. That led him to falling into Ben’s trap though as he smashed face-first into the barrier, unable to fall back as he did so, leaving the demigod trapped without enough room to swing his spear.

When Ben remade the barrier enchantment on his shoes he changed it in some massive ways, having to sacrifice some strength in the enchantment as he did but getting the exact effect he’d hoped for. It was perfectly clear and secured itself to the ground while two different barriers went up. The first formed a circle around Ben, letting things pass through from his side while the other side couldn’t get in, a bit farther out was another one with the opposite effect, letting things in without letting them out, meaning the demigod was sandwiched for the time being.

He didn’t let it get to his head though and instead acted as quick as he could, pulling his knife from his side and slicing down where he felt the instincts from his skills pointing to, having to move slightly farther out as he went until only the handle of the knife was still with him and he let go. The most important thing was not getting caught in his own barrier by letting any of his limbs out so he left it to do its damage, all of the enchantments he’d put on it displaying their full effect and as flesh started to cook as he reached into his pockets, trying to see what to grab next, only for Myriad’s screams to get through to him in his moment of decision.

As he took the barest second to stop thinking on his next move to look at Ather’s face, a few things clicked for him. The demigod hadn’t thrown himself at him after he fired his shot, he just hadn’t lost his momentum from his speed, and the reason he wasn’t falling was simply because he couldn’t. Wedged between two barriers, he was forced upright as blood dripped from his mouth and the wounds he’d caused gushed, the blood thinning and sacrilege enchantment on the pellets doing its work while the other ones caused their own chaos, and that wasn’t mentioning his knife. With all of the rather violent enchantments he’d put on it when he’d made it, it was possible that using it on a person wasn’t the best idea.

He’d thought he needed to prepare for everything for the fight, but he’d made multiple serious miscalculations. He knew the demigod had awakened skills, likely of the earth augmentation and at least one other for spear use, but he didn’t know if he had more, or any defense ones at a high level so he planned as if he did. More than that, he knew that demigods were born with attributes above a thousand, but considering that he had likely lived for over twenty years, having all of that time to train, Ben had prepared for far worse. Never would he have guessed that the man who viewed himself a powerful warrior hadn’t bothered to train any more than he needed to, happy to accept his natural-born strength that already towered over others.

Even more than that, Ben hadn’t expected to be in a place where he’d won. He was sure he’d be able to hurt him at least a bit, letting him work out some of the anger of just what he’d done to Thera, but he’d always planned on forfeiting shortly after that to save his skin. He knew she wouldn’t want him getting himself killed over something like that, and he frankly didn’t want to end up too beaten either.

He turned to look at Felth and the other priests standing around, only to see them all, mouths agape at the state of their demigod, none able to properly react to the carnage as he called out to them.

“Hey, maybe one of you wants to announce the winner so we can get this guy some help?”

“...We acknowledge your victory,” The apostle said through gritted teeth, and it was good enough for him. Lowering his barrier, he turned to the fallen demigod to retrieve his knife at the same time he heard his god call out in panic and felt something strike his back.