"You need to learn to be more considerate of others," said Vahn, stopping Percedal mid-air and freezing the space around them with a relaxed raise of his left hand. This affected everyone else at the table as well, but only for a brief moment as he made a slow, counter-clockwise turning gesture with his hand, causing Percedal to return to his seat and the food atop the table to return to its trays.
Freed from Vahn's causality reversal, Amalia was the first to question, "Was that Time Magic...?" with a confused expression.
"Something similar, but not quite, " responded Vahn, followed by his and Percedal's bodies disappearing as he teleported them a hundred meters away.
"Grrgh! Quit with the magic tricks and fight me like a man...!" shouted Percedal, leaping toward Vahn with Rubilax growing from the side of a large dagger to a greatsword. In response, Vahn briefly considered his options before producing a thin sword formed from his Light Light Fruit powers in his left hand.
FWOOM
Swinging his sword horizontally toward Vahn, Percedal flattened the grass around them with the air pressure. He was hoping to smash Vahn's flimsy-looking sword with a single blow. Instead, he experienced a phenomenon his brain couldn't comprehend as Vahn leaned back slightly and appeared to spin in slow motion before accelerating through him like a phantom. As a result, his sword passed through empty air, and he lost all feeling below his waist.
shhnk
"Ah..."
With his upper body carried forward and spun around by the momentum of his swing, Percedal was able to confirm what he already knew before his torso hit the ground. Vahn had sliced him cleanly at the waist, leaving behind a wound that glowed with golden light. And to add insult to injury, he had no idea how the former had done it.
"Dally, no...!" exclaimed Yugo, not expecting Vahn to cut down his friend so mercilessly. His surprise was shared by nearly every other member of the group. Meanwhile, Amalia couldn't help but beam excitedly, her brown eyes glistening as the instantaneousness of Vahn's victory reinforced that she had chosen and sided with a man—a God whose power far exceeded the standard.
Before Yugo could succumb to his panic, Vahn glanced back at Percedal, lying wide-eyed on the ground, and remarked, "The technique I used is a skill called Amputate. You may be imagining some, but there shouldn't be any pain. And if you pull your two halves together, we can continue this as long as you believe is necessary."
"Hear that, dingle-brain? You're not dead yet," remarked Rubilax, causing Percedal to blink back to awareness. He was sure Vahn's attack had been fatal, causing the light to fade from his pale orange eyes as he awaited his end. Instead, just as Vahn had explained, there was no pain, and his guts, which should have streamed out of him like a torn refuse bag, were where they were supposed to be.
"Wow! What is this? How am I alive...!?" asked Percedal, sounding equal parts excited and confused as he righted his torso and glanced down at himself with wide, astonished eyes. Meanwhile, Vahn, having just finished explaining things to him, remained completely silent.
"Have you calmed down, or do you wish to continue...?" asked Vahn, his expression and tone flat as he performed a sweeping slice directed at a nearby plateau. Nothing happened at first, but as Percedal followed the movement with his head and eyes, he and everyone else were shocked to see the upper half of the plateau separate from its base and explode into tiny cubes that promptly vaporized.
"That...that...that...." muttered Percedal, his voice barely audible before he turned to stare up at Vahn with glistening eyes and exclaimed, "That was amazing! Do you think you could teach me how to destroy mountains with a single swing of my sword!?"
"I'm not in the habit of instructing those who swing their swords without care or concern for their allies..." stated Vahn, narrowing his eyes slightly as he asserted, "You're short-tempered, self-centered, and, when things don't go your way, you turn to violence. You've confused valor with doing as you please..."
Though it wasn't deliberate, Vahn's Will of the Emperor activated as he was censuring Percedal. As a result, the young, bifurcated Iop felt as if the sky had darkened and an entire mountain was pressing down on him as Vahn added, like a divine sentence, "You have the potential to be one, but as you are, you're no Hero..."
"What? But I...I..." muttered Percedal, feeling small as a mouse as Vahn's figure appeared to increase in size until, towering over him to the point of blocking out the sky. He wanted to defend, excuse, or shift the blame for his actions, but as Vahn's aquamarine-turned-golden eyes bored into and pierced through him, his mind drew a blank.
"Dally!? How are you still alive...!?" asked Yugo, appearing from one of his unstable, bluish-green, circular portals.
Retracting the pressure he was instinctively asserting, Vahn glanced at Yugo with a raised right brow and questioned, "Did you believe I would kill him just because he challenged me? Though I can understand your concern, given how things appear."
Before Yugo could offer his response, Amalia suddenly came leaping through the air at Vahn with her arms extended, shouting, "Vahn! That was incredible! You're even stronger than I imagined~!"
Catching the bronze-skinned Sadida Princess out of the air, Vahn spun with and prepared to set her down before Amalia linked her arms around his shoulders, bent her knees to prevent him from putting her down, and invaded his mouth with her tongue. It didn't last long, but she made sure to lick nearly the entirety of the interior of his mouth before pulling away and staring at him with a cheeky, slightly flushed smile.
"You're becoming increasingly bold with each passing day..." noted Vahn, adopting a relaxed smile as he set Amalia down but kept his right hand on her smooth, exposed waist.
"Well, I am the future wife of a handsome, extraordinarily powerful God~" chimed Amalia, sticking close to Vahn's side while glancing back and up at him with a wide, toothy smile. She was tempted to guide his hand to her belly, but since Yugo was observing their interaction with wide eyes and a somewhat dazed expression, she restrained herself.
"Well, this isn't something you see every day..." remarked Ruel, reaching the scene with a cross-armed Eva and his three elderly, understandably befuddled-looking companions. Percedal's legs were still upright, and a golden haze slowly rose from his waist, which, if peered through, revealed the base of his lower intestines and bladder, cut cleanly but producing no blood.
"H-Hey! Don't just stare at it! Help me up...!" shouted Percedal, regaining his usual vigor but avoiding looking at Vahn as he began knuckle crawling toward his severed lower half.
"Sheesh. I always knew he wasn't even half the man you are, but I didn't think it would become literal..." remarked Amalia, her voice hushed so that only Vahn and Eva's sensitive ears could hear her.
"You don't need to elevate me at the expense of others..." stated Vahn, taking advantage of Amalia turning her head to give her a quick peck on the lips. Then, before separating from her to help Ruel reunite Percedal's torso with his lower body, he gave her butt a fleeting but firm squeeze to ensure she would remain silent—at least for a short while...
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"I'm sorry for my behavior! Please forgive me, your Dragon Godliness...!" shouted Percedal, offering Vahn a nearly ninety-degree bow after things had calmed down.
"I accept your apology, but sincerity is shown through action, not words," stated Vahn, waving his left hand to force Percedal to raise his head as he smiled and added, "You're a little rough around the edges right now, but I believe you have what it takes to become an incredible Hero, Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove. It's normal to stray from the path of righteousness once or twice on your path to becoming a Hero. The most important thing is that, just like in a fight, you pick yourself up and keep pushing forward until you find that which means more to you than fame and glory..."
"So, what, like a super rare artifact from a Dungeon or a priceless treasure forgotten by time?" asked Percedal, crossing his arms and tilting his head in confusion. Vahn was, of course, talking about finding a woman he loved and starting a family, but since it was important for Percedal to figure that out on his own, the former ultimately shook his head and asserted, "You'll know what it is once you find it. For now, we should return to Bonta. Your match against Lamechester United begins in seventeen minutes and nine seconds."
"Actually, Ruel and I were just talking about that with the other members of the Royal Gobblies..." interjected Yugo, approaching Vahn and looking somewhat nervous as he revealed, "We think it would be for the best if we forfeit the match and continue our journey..."
"What? Forfeit the match? But why...!?" asked Percedal, raising his voice to nearly a shout.
"Because it gets us no closer to the goal we set out to accomplish when we began this journey—that being to help Yugo find his family," answered Ruel, approaching with his former team members, each sporting grim but determined expressions. Winning the 8th Division Finals would earn them fame and fortune, but as they wouldn't be attaining victory themselves, it wouldn't be long before public sentiment turned against them. Thus, with heavy hearts but full purses—courtesy of Amalia—they agreed to pull out of the match.
"That's right," chimed Amalia, all smiles as she argued, "I think it's a good thing that we put our journey on hold to provide aid to those in need, but this isn't one of those moments. Our top priority right now is getting Yugo to Oma Island and completing our current Quest. We didn't set out on this journey to become famous Gobbowlers, and there's a difference between their fame and the fame of a Hero."
"Then what was the point of our training these past nine days...?" asked Percedal, looking thoroughly unconvinced.
"You might not feel like it, but you've become stronger, faster, and much more durable since our training began," stated Vahn, choosing to go with the flow of the situation. He was actually in the same camp as Eva, where he found the sport of Gobbowl to be unnecessarily crude and infantile, so it didn't matter to him whether the group participated. He was merely an observer.
"Come on, Dally! It's a beautiful day to set sail, and we have a super cool ship waiting to take us wherever we want to go!" shouted Yugo, pumping his fists excitedly. Before that, Percedal was still on the fence. But when he recalled that they did, in fact, have an amazing ship with cannons and even a fish-themed submersible, a broad, toothy grin that showed off his prominent canines spread across his face as he performed an impromptu dap with Yugo and responded, "Right! Let's go...!" in an excited tone. And with that, the 8th Division Finals of the Bonta Gobbowl League concluded with Lamechest United securing the trophy by forfeit...
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"Your duel with Percedal was over in the blink of an eye, but every time I think back to it, I can't help feeling excited..." remarked Amalia, her voice low and sensual, and her eyes narrowed with a possessive gleam as she slid her pussy along Vahn's shaft. She should have been out helping keep an eye on the sea, but shortly after they boarded, she ended up dragging Vahn to her commandeered Captain's Cabin—just the two of them.
"But I wasn't lying when I said he had great potential..." remarked Vahn, giving Amalia's left ass cheek a light smack as he added, "You should try to get along rather than disparaging him at every opportunity."
"He's the one who keeps antagonizing me and Eva..." countered Amalia, taking a moment to bite her bottom lip before arguing, "He's clearly just jealous. Before we came to Bonta, he and Eva got into little spats like an old married couple. Now, ever since she gave you her virginity and we've been spending our nights together, she's been ignoring him. He's just like a kid trying to get the attention of the girl he likes by acting out and being loud..."
"That may be..." conceded Vahn, raising Amalia's butt and allowing her to guide his cock to the entrance of her hot, pulsating pussy as he asserted, "But you don't need to engage with him on the same level. Doing so is just adding fuel to the fire..."
"Mmmmngh...if you say so..." responded Amalia, seating herself snugly against Vahn, leaning her head back, and caressing her lower abdomen with her right hand as she sighed, "I'll try to be a bit more tolerant from now on..."
"I would greatly appreciate it," affirmed Vahn, a second version of himself materializing behind Amalia, wrapping his arms around her, and planting a kiss on her right shoulder before things began to really heat up...
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