A great clamor rose from the fighting ring in front of Babel Tower. It happened as the crowd noticed a certain Elias Crossford leisurely walking toward it. But Elias made no attempts to answer the cheers. He proceed to the center looking all too disappointed.
Noticing him, Yuri energetically waved his hand and jogged up. “So you’ve come, Mr. Elias! I’m counting on you today!”
Seeing Yuri respectfully bow his head, Elias narrowed his eyes. “...I should say you did well to not run away, but personally, I would have preferred if you ran and left the duel city behind.”
“In that case, I’ll say it instead! You did well to not run away!”
Yuri riled him up with a wide smile, sending waves of unrest across the spectators. Their confusion only swelled as both parties took out their Proofs, held them up—and touched them together.
This was the procedure for a contractual duel. To lock Proofs and vow to fight to the last breath.
“Hey...hey, hey, hey! That rookie wants to fight a contractual duel with Elias!”
“Adamant and Iron, for god’s sakes! He’s got no chance!”
“The terms of the contract are...‘Yuri Eniastar is henceforth forbidden from setting foot in the duel city’...meaning no matter what his rate is, if he loses, the rookie resigns as a duelist!”
“He can’t be sane! Why did he accept such an idiotic contract!?”
The words raced like lightning from the mouths of those watching, making their rounds until they had formed a deafening ruckus. Even in the midst of this, the two fighters quietly glared at one another.
“It’s getting pretty noisy.”
“I’ve never been one to pay attention to my surroundings. More importantly, there is one thing I need to know.” Elias asked through a slight frown, “Why...did you accept this duel?”
Yuri had every right to refuse not only the contract but the duel itself. Admittedly, refusing the duel might shame him as a coward—or at least, that was the norm nowadays—but no one would blame him for refusing the contract. A loss would mean losing something precious. To run to protect what is dear was nothing to be ashamed of.
Despite that, Yuri accepted Elias’s contract. His reason for doing so was spelled out with the most joyous of faces.
“Why, because you piss me off.”
“...What?”
“I mean, you always talk about mix-blood this, and mix-blood that, and how it’s because my master was a mix-blood or something or another... While you supposedly respect the mix-blooded duelist Reilly, you look down on and despise mix-bloods more than anyone else.” Yuri continued with his same amicable smile, “You say you respect Reilly Malbork, but the truth is you despise mix-bloods. Not only do you try to resolve this discrepancy with selfish, self-serving sophistry, you say some nonsense about it being for my sake and try to steal my future away from me—I just thought I didn’t want to lose to someone so mistaken and misguided.”
Elias’s expression warped. “You’ll wish you never said that, whelp.” His canines bared, Elias’s sharp glare emanated alongside a murderous aura. “I thought I would kill you in one blow to spare you the pain, but...I’ve changed my mind.”
Elias grasped the hilt of his sword as he took his stance as a duelist.
“I’ll torture you to death—slowly and painfully.”
A bizarre malice exuded from every pore on his body. An intensity great enough to bend any foe to his will. Taking in all these new sensations, Yuri’s eyes widened and sparkled.
“Wonderful, so this is the real Mr. Elias!!”
A formidable foe before him, he quickly and energetically drew his black sword. He showed no fear or apprehensions.
“Then let’s both fight to our fullest!”
His confident proclamation opened the curtain on the match as both sides lifted their Proofs.
Yuri took a strong step in even before his surroundings were completely sepia. A swift surprise attack making full use of his small build. Straightforward, an upfront thrust that could be taken as foolish.
“Fool. You think you can take the Beast Tribe head-on with a Human Tribe’s physical capabilities—”
Elias shifted his large curved sword in accordance with Yuri’s movements. He simply had to hold it out to catch the blade, his stance ready to snap it right out of the boy’s hands with the next motion. Or so it should have been.
“—I thought you’d start with a block!!”
The moment Yuri slipped into his midst and forcefully thrust his black sword—Elias’s curved blade was shot backward. The black sword, turned off its original trajectory, carved a shallow gash into Elias’s side.
The cut was inconsequential, but there was something else that brought shock to Elias’s face. Even if it was only for an instant, a beastman’s physical might lost to a human.
“Now what was that...about a Human Tribe’s physical capabilities?”
The moment he saw Yuri’s smile right below his head, Elias half-instinctively shot out a knee.
“Don’t let...it get to your head!!”
Elias’s knee caught Yuri in the pit of his stomach, blowing his petite body a considerable ways back. Yet, once again, Elias furrowed his brow. The sensation was off. It felt more like kicking steel than it did bone.
Unable to leave this off-feeling be, he carefully inspected Yuri. “Some sort of protector...no. I definitely felt the texture of skin.”
Yuri gave him no answers. There was no visible armor on his torso, and the lack of any contour over his slender chest made the possibility of plating under his clothing exceptionally low. Elias weighed this sensation against his past experiences, in an attempt to identify it.
“...I see. The Dragon Tribe’s steel bones.”
Given his wealth of experience, the conclusion was simple enough to reach. With a basis in that theory, he began systematically inferring the other abilities Yuri had exhibited.
“Then...that power and speed must be the skill of the Beast Tribe.”
Normally, he should be shocked just seeing a mix-blood actually using a Tribe Skill. However, Elias showed no unrest. He would not make such a blunder in the midst of battle. By comparing his opponent to his own experiences, he calmly discerned their weakness.
“You have my admiration, to be able to use the skill of another tribe with your body...but, from what I can see, you’re not using it through proper means.”
Once again, Yuri offered no response. However—orbs of sweat oozed from his forehead. Elias could tell that Yuri didn’t have much difficulty pushing him back, but he could hear the intense, hastened beat of the boy’s heart go off like an alarm bell. The human body was crying out due to movements beyond human capacity.
Athena’s training allowed Yuri to use the Tribe Skill without first damaging his own body. However...that didn’t erase the damage done by the skill itself.
His overexerted bones and muscles jarred and creaked; blood raced around his body at such high temperatures it felt as though it would burst out of him. If he lost focus for only a moment, he could see his body falling apart.
Even so, Yuri’s smile thrived.