In Loki's Honor

Lord Ackerton worked the next weeks on putting his plan in motion. A hefty measure of gold went to a Viscount House as Anjou's dowry. With a request to keep the girl and her mother safe and well cared for along with a footnote that read bloody murder would be their pay if they failed to do so. A fast carriage with riders was sent to fetch Mirabelle.

Days after we settled Anjou's engagement, we were at the castle. In a solemn session of the court, the King granted his blessing. Lord Ackerton became Baron Ackerton, ruler of the fief of Kenan.

A banquet was thrown to celebrate the harvest and welcome the newest noble to the Realm. We were sitting three tables away from the King, a very prestigious place according to Gloria. The nobility were all high leveled, the oldest nobles in the sixties, and the young scions considered children until the forties. The boon Galbarar granted me was a life-saver. Even with my honor guard of four Temple Knights of the Bundeus persuasion, people still doubted my claim because they couldn't see my level.

One such drunk noble came across our table. The second son of a Marquis, I believe. Level forty-two.

"Baron Ackerton!" He slurred. "I challenge you to the rite of Argantmoet Trevillian!"

A King from a bygone age, Argantmoet Trevillian conquered his innumerous wives through force. All of them were daughters of chieftains, he built a harem of hostages and unified the nearby tribes. The rite included a provision for the woman to fight for her own freedom against the conqueror should her father lose.

Ackerton stared at him. "Apricot, you'll handle the duel. He wants to claim you."

And the rite was not to marry. Not in the proper sense of the word. The woman wagered in the rite became a mere concubine. A trophy.

"It makes no sense!" The young man shouted. "Why would I kill my own bride?"

"If you win, I'll offer you my neck and title. You can be the next Baron of Kenan."

He looked at me and shouted. I kept eating my pheasant. When he insisted, I looked up. "You are too short. Grow to the size of the King's highest tower and we can fight."

A bout of laughter echoed on the surrounding tables at the guy's expense.

"You stupid bitch. I'll fuck you in your retarded face," He threatened.

I looked up. "Grow a dick twice as big as your mouth and we'll see about that."

He slammed the table. On the other side, a goblet spilled a red liquid on a lady's dress.

"ENOUGH!" The King shouted. "I sanction this duel. Baron Ackerton, are you sure you want to nominate your daughter as your champion?"

"Against this boorish whelp, your Majesty? I'll scold her if she gets a single bruise from him."

I scanned the banquet hall. Too many eyes on us. Now I understood what this theater was all about. People in high places wished to test my mettle. And Ackerton's at the same time. Should he lose, I would either become some stupid inbred mongrel's bitch or die trying.

"Fine, let's do this," I stood up and slammed the table with less force than the guy. Not that I pulled my punch but he was that much stronger. "Somebody fetch me my horse! I got a dickless bastard to slay!"

"I'm not dickless!" The guy protested.

I gave him a sideways glance and scoffed. "You will be before I kill you."

Ackerton stood up and held my arm. "No assassination techniques. No contract either," he whispered.

I already knew they had ways to detect assassin contracts. The one I put on the King was long gone but it took whoever was removing them more than twenty tries to take it off. I nodded and went to get ready for my duel.

Gloria came with me as my second. She handed me two stylish bronze daggers with a fancy guard. "A present from Trevor. Use them well."

Too bad I couldn't teach them how to smelt steel. There was also the problem that the furnaces we had were too cold for that. I tested the daggers and found that they were very well-balanced. Their guard would allow me to parry and deflect heavier weapons without hurting my hands. I set them along my back with the sheaths crossing in an X. I practiced drawing them for a while, removing them in both the standard and icepick grips. My learning perks flared to life and gave me a new Skill.

You gained the Quickdraw [Daggers] (uncommon) Skill. Increase the precision of movement and reduce the time required to draw and ready daggers.

That Skill was in the [Assassin] list but I never bothered to buy it.

Almost everything in this crazy System was multiplicative. I had {Pioneer} for 10% learning rate, {Prodigy} for another 10% boost, and {Hero} for 20%. They combined for a 45% boost to the learning rate on top of the Class and Profession bonuses. The time and effort I needed to learn a Skill was only 55% of what an [Assassin] of my level would.

I was already wearing a corset that doubled as armor. My dress had a turtleneck and was closed in the front to hide the fact the armor covered my decolletage. We removed a few petticoats to give me more mobility and added a pleated skirt made of brigandine leather strips underneath the dress to protect my groin and thighs. If a wardrobe malfunction happened, I would be decent enough for a duel.

The final touch was to swap my shoes for combat boots made of black snake leather and add matching gloves. I could even disrobe before the combat.

Gloria turned me around and tried the daggers on my back, "I liked the way you set your daggers. I've never seen anyone use them like that."

I smiled. "We could even hide them with a wide sash and a ribbon. I'll show you later how it's done. But we need daggers without the crossguard. These are too conspicuous. But enough of that. I got an inbred Chad Wannabe to murder."

Gloria was puzzled, "Shadwanabee? I'm not familiar with that word."

I chuckled, "Nevermind."

We went to the palace courtyard, an arena for some gladiatorial games. Which I learned later were never to the death. The gladiators that died were an accident and the killer's stable had to pay a hefty fine. Unfortunately, Argantmoet Trevillian was to death. Unfortunately for Chad, that was.

And Chad, being a good Chad, had a two-handed sword. A hefty slab of bronze. I smiled at the sight. I couldn't hope to stack the deck more against him. The biggest the difference in reach the better my defensive Skills would function. A legacy from the Great White One's fighting style. {Favored Enemy [Human]} would also cover my deficient combat Skill levels.

I had my two new daggers and a few throwing ones. They were just balanced blades without a handle. We stood there while Chad showed his Chad-ness to the ladies. I curtsied toward the King and turned to do the same to Ackerton's seat. Then I faced my opponent. Gloria was a few paces behind me and Chad had nobody on his side.

"Begin!" The King shouted.

Chad didn't waste time. He charged forward, the blade pointing toward Vester, the blue moon. Her sisters were hidden tonight. I palmed a throwing dagger and waited in a neutral stance. I had to study Chad's fighting style.

His sword came down. I sidestepped and dodged, dashing forward and to his right side since that was the one he favored. As I passed, I sliced his flank with the dagger, opening a shallow gash on his clothes and drawing a line across his skin. He had no armor on his abdomen and his tunic was open enough that I could see the chest hairs poking out. He got a bleeding debuff but nothing major. His HP total, of which I could not see only sense the size and fullness, barely moved.

The sword hit the ground raising a plume of dust. He released one hand and elbowed me as I moved past him, forcing me to do a barrel roll on the ground, putting me a meter behind and to his right. I spun in a crouched position to face him and watched.

His sword was massive. Maybe the heaviest he could manage with his Strength score. There is one fun fact about nobles. Although they get more Attribute points than others due to the rarity of their Classes, they have to split some of them on the mental ones, especially Charisma, or they can't maneuver the cutthroat world of court politics.

Chad spun and brought his slab of metal in a sideways cut coming low. That's how I lost a leg during my last duel in an arena. I jumped at the blade and used it as a stepping stone to {Double Jump}. and kick his face. It did nothing but hurt his pride. From his face, I {Double Jumped} again and gracefully landed away from his reach.

I heard muted cheers amidst the jeering. The ladies were not happy with the way I was treating Chad.

"I'll kill you for that," the retarded nobleman taunted.

"And I'm going to kick you in the face again," I taunted back with a grin.

He screamed and came to me. With a sword this heavy, he was telegraphing all of his blows. He slashed diagonally and I focused my sight on his elbows. Whatever he would do next w. I drew a dagger from my back and angled it to slide the sword along the blade, allowing it to push me away and out of harm's way. With his sight blocked by the blade, I drew the other dagger and slashed the meaty brachioradialis muscle of his forearm.

You dealt 81 HP of damage ( 12 base x1.11 Strength x1.09 Skill x 1.4 anatomy x 4 critical). Target is bleeding. {Stunning Bleed} active. Target's left arm is impaired.

Death by a thousand cuts.

With my choice of weapon and my poor statistics, that's what I had to work with. But he was stunned. Time to inflict death by a thousand cuts. I did my best Hokuto Shinken's impression with dual daggers focusing most of the blows on his arms. The heinous bleed debuffs I could cause with my perks started to stack and I connected another {Stuning Bleed} before the previous could end.

His sword fell to the ground. He couldn't hold it anymore.

Chaining the same crowd control effect was impossible. The System lowered the duration sharply. I moved away as he came to his senses, with both arms disabled in the mangled stage and the right leg impaired. He was bleeding from so many wounds that I could sense his HP lowering.

The arm wounds would become a permanent disability without proper care. Or magic. The ultimate cheat.

"Fuck you, woman. Fight like a man!" He cursed.

I came for the final blow. Ducking under one clumsy punch, I brought both daggers down on his trousers, stabbing his lower abdomen as far below the navel as I could. I locked them and used their guards as levers to grind the two blades against one another. He smacked me on the side of the head moments before his pain receptors informed him of the damage.

Even with the arm barely working, his punch pushed me away. I twisted the daggers as he forcefully disconnected us. A shout of rage and pain came out of Chad's throat as he fell on his knees, lowering his head down to protect his pride in an awkward grovel.

"Enough!" I heard the King shout but ignored him. I brought the daggers down on his exposed nape and brought honor to the Survey Corps.

You killed level 42 High Aristocrat. You gained 362,625 Exp (17,640 base x 10,000 perk x 0,0001 curse x 3.05 perk x 2 Class rank x 3,37 favored enemy).

A drop in the bottomless bucket of the next Level.

I wiped my blades on his back, the only part of his clothes free of blood, and stowed them before I looked around. The King was fuming.

"Guards! Arrest her!" The King shouted.

My temple Knights jumped down from the grandstand. Gloria moved to stand protecting my back. Palace guards filtered in from the entrances. The nobles were arguing among themselves and I could see they were divided.

Chad's ruse was staged with the King's agreement. He probably promised the Marquis that his son wouldn't be harmed.

The temple knights drew their weapons. The palace guards already had theirs. I reached back and touched Gloria's arm as I spun to shake my head. She shouldn't act.

"Your Majesty!" I shouted. I spoke slowly, like in the early days before my diction Skills rose in level. I wanted them to believe I was what was commonly misattributed to my disability. "What is the problem? I won my duel. The rite of Argantmoet Trevillian demands death."

Several nobles nodded. I could see that some of them were making their minds as I talked.

"I told you to stop. You ignored me!" The King shouted back.

"Sorry, Your Majesty," I said slurring a bit. I pointed at my bloody ear. "My ears were ringing from his punch. I didn't hear."

Some nobles laughed.

"Your Majesty," one noble in very fine clothes and decked with gold stood. A man in his sixties but with partially exposed abs under his toga to cause envy to WWE wrestlers. "I beseech the Crown to observe the rules of the ancient rite and the {Heroine}'s station. Bundeus is with Her, His temple knights will fight for her."

Basically stand the fuck down or you'll get in trouble with the church, with several nobles openly siding the wrong way. No man rules alone. Even a Level seventy-two trueborn [Royal].

He exchanged a glance with another noble sitting by his side. probably the Marquis.

"The rite of Argantmoet Trevillian was concluded. The victory belongs to Lady Ackerton," The King declared with an obvious knot in his voice. "Glory to House Ackerton!"

The nobles cheered and clapped. Several ladies dismayed as they saw their ship sink. I leaned on Gloria to walk outside and the temple knights boxed us as we went back to our borrowed room to clean up.