"I refuse." Axel bluntly said.
"Do you think you have the qualifications to refuse? In Emain Macha, commoners like you can never oppose us nobles!" Caleb shouted as he flicked his sword towards the sky.
Why had this brainless blondie been petty enough to initiate a duel over who had their fortune told first? Although Rua was an unmatched beauty with a busty body, she was not exactly Axel's type. He preferred loli looking girls with a baby face.
At this moment, Baxtor who had been waiting for their drinks went over to see the commotion. His face almost dropped to the ground when he saw Axel in the midst of the conflict.
"Azel, quickly apologize to the Sir Baron! He's not someone you can offend!" Baxtor whispered as he nudged over to Axel.
Apologize? There was no such word in Axel's dictionary when it came to matters with people that rubbed him the wrong way. This blondie fit in this category.
Ignoring Baxtor's warning, he stepped up to Caleb so that he could see eye to eye with him. Caleb was slightly taller than Axel, who was about 5 feet 10 inches tall. Caleb's eyes immediately became sharper with fury as he saw this commoner so closely to him.
"Get away from me! You don't deserve to lift your head in front of us nobles! Bow down and accept the duel!" Caleb snorted.
"I don't want to say it again. I have no reason to duel you, and if you insist on forcing this on me, I will fight you to the death!" Axel calmly said as he continued staring at Caleb at point blank distance.
Baxtor who had heard Axel's response wanted to vomit blood. Although his family had accumulated a great deal of wealth through selling crafted items through Uladh, a merchant could only have so much power compared to an actual member of nobility. Although the Baron Walford family was only the lowest rank among the nobles, a noble was still a noble. They had absolute power over the commoners, and controlled many armies in the country. Many of the large businesses in Uladh were also in the possessions of the nobles. If Axel had caused a disturbance with the son of Baron Walford, it would spell disaster for him in the future.
Before Axel could react, two mercenaries with a strong build appeared from the corners of the pub. They were both wearing the Linen Cuirass that Baxtor had given Axel and had a Gladius on the left side of their waist. Axel had not been able to tell they were mercenaries at first, as they were fully robed and looked like any other adventurer out there that came to the pub for happy hour.
"Hmph! Forget about the duel! You two, get rid of this b*stard right away!" Caleb bellowed as he backed away with a slight smile.
Both of the mercenaries dashed towards Axel with the Gladius in hand, about to stab Axel in the chest in one move as if it was meant for assassination. Right when they were about to reach Axel's body, two rapid arrows slapped onto their swords as they blocked it. In the back of Axel, Baxtor had already drawn his bow with lightning speed. The speed of these shots were out of this world. Baxtor had done the same thing when he had successfully aimed at the 5 bears for Axel to escape the encirclement of death in Sen Mag Prairie.
These godly shots was in fact a skill in the game of Mabinogi. For human archers, a secret skill called 'Arrow Revolver' could be learned after hunting for skill pages from various monsters across multiple difficulties of dungeoning throughout Uladh. This skill was invented not by archers, but mages in the early eras of the world in the game. Using the 'Icebolt' magic skill as the original sample skill, the theory behind inventing the skill involved stacking various stacks of arrows on the bow as if it was a magician that had stacked various stacks of bolt spells. Upon learning 'Arrow Revolver', an archer could stack up to a maximum of 5 arrows into the bow string. While each shot is similar in attack power to a normal shot and slightly increases in power with consecutive shot fired, the benefits of this skill was not in its raw power. Depending on how one used the skill, the 5 stacked arrows could be used to knockback enemies to a further distance from themselves in order to establish a safe combat situation. It could also be used to distract multiple enemies when being cornered by large crowds of mobs like the situation with the bear army.
"F*cking archer, stay out of this!" Caleb cursed. The two mercenaries continued to attack Axel with countless slashes, which were all blocked by Axel with his Short Sword.
"I didn't want to intervene, but Azel is a sworn brother of mine! I can't see him get killed for such a stupid nonsense for fortune telling!" Baxtor screeched.
"We'll see who is smiling at the end then! It's two 10 star tiered Silver ranks against an archer and a newbie swordsman. There's no way any of you will come out of this alive! Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!" Caleb laughed hysterically.
Axel who had been blocking their slashes the entire time was about to lose his balance. Such blocking would ruin his weapon in the long run. Baxtor shot a volley of 3 arrows at one of the mercenaries and lured him to the other side of the pub. Now that it had been 1 versus 1 on both sides, Axel could finally launch a 'Counterattack'. Suddenly, his muscles tightened and his body became as flexible as a spring. When the lone mercenary came at him again, Axel rebounded his attack and the mercenary slid back a few steps and stabbed the Gladius into the wooden floor to keep his balance.
The Silver ranked mercenary who had been at the peak of his rank was astonished at the young man who had pushed him back. Although he had realized that a skill was used in the process, the damage he had taken was shocking. Even a Silver ranked adventurer of a similar strength to the mercenary would barely be able to push his body back more than one step. However, this unknown hooded young man had been able to push him back several steps. This level of a counter attack at least meant this young man's Strength stat was over 30. Although 30 strength was not a lot compared to veteran adventurers, it was still an ample amount to have when compared to newbie adventurers and normal citizens. Although the mercenary had not taken the fight lightly, he now knew that this was no time to hold back anymore.
The mercenary took a low stance and bent his left leg very far back. In a swift motion, he spun the Gladius into a vortex like projectile, and shot it towards Axel's body.