WILL THE REAL BULLY PLEASE STAND UP?
"How did you break the arena ground with only three punches?" Chash asked me.
"Asterix detected the fault lines in the arena grounds and showed me the weakest links in the ground. Three strikes are all it needed to break that piece of ground. Kolgane did me a favor by breaking the ground around him in the first place", I replied to him.
"The magic arena is quite old. The elevated arena is due for repair. It is not difficult to break them if we want to", Meera told us.
"It is so amazing, you defeated the guy without using any active templar skill", Cassandra said to me.
"I'm beginning to accept my circumstances without templar and bone magic", I replied to them.
"I still don't know why you agreed to fight with the loser. He didn't even come up with a billion Aur in wager," Ratatouille asked me.
"Well, the Bully needs a new match to refresh the people's interest", I replied to him.
"That is not a good enough reason to fight with that Kolgane. You already killed him before", he replied to me confusedly.
"Master must have his reason when he decided to fight against the skeleton guy", Meera told him.
"I agree with Meera. Is there another reason?" Cassandra asked me.
"There is another reason of course", I replied to them with a cunning grin.
The show is about to begin.
------
"Kolgane, did you check if the Bully who returned is the bastard Oriese and not a face changer?" Emily asked Kolgane.
"He looks the same although his magic is not", Kolgane replied to her.
"You lost the fight before he used any of his real skill, you are an idiot", Darklord scolded Kolgane.
"It wasn't my purpose to defeat him, I just need to test his strength before we strike against him. We need to know if the Bully is really back", Kolgane replied to Darklord about the purpose he challenged the Bully of Starri.
"So, what did you gather from your test?" the Queen asked Kolgane.
"This Bully is far stronger than before although I cannot confirm if he is the same person. I couldn't use my real magic against him without revealing our plans in Tarah city", Kolgane replied to her.
"I don't understand what the point with all this is", Darklord asked.
"Previously we discovered that Oriese, the Bully, has either lost all his magic for some reason and went into hiding or he died somewhere. He probably made up a story about him being his twin brother and the real Oriese went on a quest to Delirium", Emily explained to Darklord.
"Our spies confirmed that the twin in Kaleon city isn't the real Bully. The real Bully has been missing from the city for more than half a year now", Kolgane said.
"Maybe, the one in Kaleon city is really the twin and the Bully did journey to Delirium", Queen Emerald asked.
"That is a possibility which is the reason I challenged him when news of him returns reached us", Kolgane explained.
"So, you did all this to check if the real Bully has returned?" Darklord asked.
"Yes, we don't want any unexpected variables to affect our plans", Kolgane added.
"So, is he the bastard, the Bully, Oriese?" Emily asked him again.
"This guy is an impostor, but his might is no weaker than the real bastard Oriese. If I must guess, the Kaleons found another powerful Knight to masquerade as the Bully for some reason", Kolgane told them.
"The Mithridocus family is strong only because of the strength of the Bully. If the Bully's strength is gone, the other families would not defer to them. It is plausible that they would find someone to stand in for the Bully", Queen Emerald opined.
"So, are we proceeding as planned?" Darklord asked.
"It is a pity the magic Gate can only be opened from outside the city, or our army could storm into the city without having to break its defenses", the Queen told them.
"We have no choice, the curfew in Tarah city and all the prohibitory runes in the city made it impossible to cast a magic portal here without triggering the alertness of the guards and the Church", Kolgane explained to the Queen.
"Are we still acting according to our plan when the new and powerful Bully showed up in Tarah city suddenly right before our plan is to be executed?" Darklord asked his daughter who spent a moment thinking about it.
"So be it. We proceed as planned. As long as the real Oriese is not around to stop us, there is no chance for us to fail", the Queen replied to them.
"But the impostor Kolgane fought with may not be weaker in strength than the bastard Bully", Emily asked.
"The Bully's real strength isn't with his magic alone. I am not afraid of powerful foes, only the cunning ones", the Queen replied to them.
------
We collected the winnings from my fight with Kolgane from the Magic Arena and went straight to spend it.
"Let's check the auction in Tarah city. I've not come out here to the city for some time", I suggested to them.
"Yeah, we've been gone for a long time and with the curfew, we are bored in Kaleon city", Cassandra told us and complained.
We reached the Royal Auction in Tarah city. To our surprise and disappointment, the auction scene in the city has changed dramatically.
Previously, the auction was filled with character and excitement but now the place was practically empty. The economy of Tarah city has deteriorated to the extent that people no longer spend money on luxuries in the auction house.
Still, since we were already here, we went inside the auction. To our surprise again, there was only one item being auctioned and it isn't anything valuable.
The apostles were raising funds again for their war against the demon army and again they were selling tickets to another exotic destination.