Chapter 453 --453
Chapter 453: Chapter-453
The final stop of their agonizingly normal evening brought them to the edge of a bustling festival square, where brightly colored tents offered games of chance and skill.Julian dragged them toward a loud, obnoxious stall where a greasy-haired merchant was shouting insults at a group of young men who had just failed to shoot a wooden arrow into a small, painted target.
"Come on, boys! Are you blind, or just weak?" the merchant jeered, waving a handful of cheap, copper rings. "Three coppers for three arrows! Hit the bullseye, win the grand prize!"
He pointed to the top shelf of his stall, where a massive, incredibly ugly stuffed bear sat. It was dyed a garish, toxic shade of purple, and one of its glass eyes was glued on slightly higher than the other.
"I want that bear," Julian declared, crossing his arms and looking at Mahir and Ken. "Prove your worth, commanders."
Ken cracked his knuckles, a dark smirk crossing his face. "Three coppers to humiliate a civilian merchant? Gladly."
Julian paid the fee, and the merchant handed Ken a shoddy, poorly balanced wooden bow and three warped arrows. "Good luck, big man. You’ll need it!"
Ken didn’t even bother to take a proper stance. He held the bow with one hand, notched the arrow with terrifying speed, and pulled the string back. The merchant’s smug smile vanished as the cheap wooden bow groaned under Ken’s immense, beast-kin strength.
With a sharp ’crack’, the bow snapped entirely in half before Ken even released the string. The splintered wood clattered onto the counter.
Ken stared at the broken pieces, his eye twitching. "The equipment is structurally deficient."
"You broke my bow, you brute!" the merchant shrieked, though he took a massive step back as Ken glared at him. "You owe me five silver for that!"
Mahir sighed, stepping forward and pulling a silver coin from his pocket to pay the man off. "Your strength control is pathetic, Ken."
"Let me try," Elara said suddenly.
All three men turned to look at her.
"Elara, no," Julian said quickly. "You don’t have to do this. You’ve never held a bow in your life."
"I have observed the imperial archers during their drills," Elara stated, stepping up to the counter. She placed three coppers down. "Hand me a replacement bow."
The merchant, grumbling under his breath, handed her a slightly better bow and three arrows.
Elara held the weapon. She didn’t notch the arrow immediately. Instead, she stood perfectly still, her glass-bead eyes locking onto the painted target twenty yards away.