Chapter 2943: You Cheated!
Chapter 2943: You Cheated!
Date: Unspecified
Time: Unspecified
Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Blossom District, Sky Blossom City
"Buddy, you’re incapable of fighting anymore."
I generously reminded Veerott of that fact. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem particularly interested in listening. Despite having lost all four limbs, there wasn’t a trace of surrender in his eyes. If anything, the stubbornness burning within them had only grown stronger.
I could see exactly what he was thinking. As long as his body could move, he would continue fighting. The problem was that his body could no longer fight.
At this point, Veerott was like a warrior demanding another charge after someone had stolen both his horse and his legs.
"..." Veerott didn’t respond. But the fight spirit in his eyes dimmed till it completely vanished and he simply stared blankly into the distance.
He seemed disconnected from reality. For a moment, I became genuinely concerned. Did I accidentally break him? I had been looking forward to recruiting the world’s strongest Viltronian. A catatonic Viltronian wasn’t nearly as useful.
Deciding to stop while I was ahead, I turned toward his companions, declaring my win, "I’ll consider this my win."
Aqualas and Seraphina both looked at me, then at Veerott, and then at each other. Neither bothered to argue with me. After witnessing Veerott get progressively dismantled like a particularly stubborn construction project, there really wasn’t much left to debate. Both immediately rushed to his side.
"Veerott! Veerott!"
Aqualas called out urgently, waving a hand in front of his face. Meanwhile, Seraphina hurriedly retrieved several high-level recovery elixirs from her storage.
The moment she uncorked the first bottle, I raised a hand, stopping, "No. Don’t feed those to him."
The atmosphere instantly changed. Aqualas and Seraphina snapped their heads toward me. The concern in their eyes vanished and was replaced by primal rage.
For a brief moment, the two looked completely prepared to attack me regardless of the consequences. If feeding Veerott those elixirs was the last thing they accomplished before dying, they looked ready to accept that outcome.
Realizing how suspicious that sounded, I shook my head, explained by floating Veerott’s detached limbs over with celestial force. One by one, his pair of hands connected to his pair of arms. The severed surfaces matched perfectly.
"Let me." Holding the reassembled limbs in place, I glanced at the two women. "I was the one who took them off. I can put them back on too."
After all, chemically detaching someone’s limbs was considerably easier to reverse with the help of my Soul Pupils. And unlike Veerott’s friends, I would greatly prefer my future subordinate to possess all of his original body parts and maintain their pea state.
Seeing me reconnect Veerott’s hands to his arms, both Seraphina and Aqualas stared in shock. To them, it probably looked like I was performing some elaborate magic trick seeing me casually putting the limbs back together as though assembling a toy.
I couldn’t be bothered explaining the process. Instead, I walked over to Veerott and reattached each limb one by one. A few adjustments later, he was physically whole again. Unfortunately, he continued staring blankly into the void.
My fear immediately returned, turning into worry. A few moments ago, I had merely been worried that I might have broken him. Now I was starting to panic.
I had plans for Veerott. The world’s strongest Viltronian wasn’t supposed to end up mentally checked out after our first meeting. I intended to develop him into one of my strongest assets, not turn him into an expensive decorative statue.
Without needing any prompting from me, Aqualas and Seraphina immediately checked on their friend.
"Veerott? Veerott!"
Getting no response from him, Aqualas frowned. Then, deciding subtlety wasn’t working, she slapped him hard. The resulting crack echoed across the battlefield like a cannon blast. The force behind it resembled an ocean wave colliding with a cliff.
Veerott’s head snapped sideways. Then his eyes suddenly regained focus. Then he roared with a force that shook the surrounding area.
"I CAN STILL FIGHT!"
I blinked. Maybe I had gone too easy on him. Noticing my expression, Seraphina suddenly reparmed, "You know you cheated, right?"
I turned toward her, asking, "What’s that supposed to mean?"
For a moment, I wondered if they were preparing to dispute the wager.
"Even before the fight began, Veerott was trapped inside your curse field," Seraphina replied. "You held a massive advantage from the very start. If not for that, we can’t be certain you would have won."
There was some truth to what she was saying. The thousand curse fields had influenced nearly every aspect of the battle. Without them, the fight would have looked very different.
Still, I immediately noticed what Seraphina hadn’t said. She hadn’t claimed the wager was invalid. She hadn’t argued that Veerott hadn’t lost. She certainly hadn’t demanded a rematch.
Instead, she was planting seeds. Questioning the circumstances. Creating room for doubt. It was the sort of argument a lawyer would make when they knew they couldn’t overturn the verdict but still wanted to negotiate a better outcome afterward.
This meant she wasn’t trying to cancel the wager. At least not yet. She was working toward something else. And judging by the look in her eyes, she wasn’t done arguing.
"Veerott could have chosen to fight me outside the curse field." I shrugged as I looked at the trio. "He was clearly capable of leaving whenever he wanted. Instead, he stayed inside and tried to fight me in it. Or worse, he kept trying to destroy it from within. Honestly, I still don’t understand why he never left and attempted to dismantle it from the outside. From our fight, it’s obvious he didn’t lack power."
The moment the words left my mouth, silence descended. Because it was true. With Veerott’s Viltronian physique and divinity, he could leave the one thousand curse fields anytime he wanted. He simply chose not to. Instead, he stubbornly continued fighting on my terms.
Aqualas blinked and Seraphina frowned. But Veerott didn’t look confused. From their expressions, each of their thoughts were clear to me. All three of them failed to catch the important point. Good for me, I guess.