Chapter 133: Showing off
The dim torchlight flickered across the smooth stones as Calien and Erik watched Chief Varros step toward the oncoming humanoid twin-tentacle octopus creatures, his grip tightening around the slender knife. The hall was alive with a tense energy—each scrape of monstrous limb against the ground, each glistening glint of dark eye and slick skin making the very walls seem to ripple.
And then he moved.
It was seamless—as if his very feet glided rather than stepped. A whisper of metal flashed as Varros shifted sideways, letting one tentacle whip past him before his blade carved a deep, decisive strike across the nearest octopus’s head. The thing shuddered and fell without a sound, crumpling into a grotesque heap at his feet.
"Oh! Did you see that?" gasped one of the attendants, hands clenched together in awe as he leaned toward his companion. "That’s Chief Varros for you. Absolutely precise!"
The other nodded eagerly, fists pumping like an excited boy at a festival. "He’s a true Mana Knight of the Black Vale, after all! That kind of skill doesn’t come easy. Even if there’s some draining formation at work here, it’s like it doesn’t matter at all!"
Calien gave a faint grunt in reply, eyes tracking the chief’s movement as he slipped between two more of the monstrous foes. Erik, standing at his side, wore a similarly distant expression, gaze sharp but strangely detached.
"You see that feint, Calien?" the first attendant whispered again, barely able to contain his thrill. "And the way he cuts upward as they lunge? Absolutely textbook. I mean, I could never manage that kind of timing."
"Mm," Calien offered with a vague nod, not looking away.
"You guys must be so proud," the second attendant continued breathlessly, eyes bright. "Training under someone like him... can you imagine how much you’d learn just watching him fight like this every day?"