Chapter 368: Because It Looks Cool!
Panic flared through the ranks.
Everyone knew Nyx’s terrifying reputation—not to mention the fact that she was basically a sister to the notoriously unhinged Queen of the Dark Elves.
Being close to a nightmare like that meant Nyx was easily one of the most dangerous people alive.
But Poppy, innocent and curious as ever, tilted her head.
"Why is everyone so scared of that elf?" She asked, peeking over Thea’s shoulder. "She’s actually really pretty and beautiful. She doesn’t seem that scary at all."
Thea’s voice was low and grave. "The most beautiful flowers often hide the deadliest thorns, my lady. Do not be fooled."
Nyx on the other hand casually looked around at the terrified centaurs, completely unbothered by their reactions.
Her eyes landed on Sigrid, and she gave a polite, graceful bow.
"Don’t mind me, Commander." Nyx said smoothly. "I’m just helping my husband out with a quick favor. I won’t be staying long."
Sigrid, still trying to process the sudden arrival, managed a tight nod. "Right...it’s fine."
Having secured permission, Nyx turned to Luca.
Luca smiled, raising his perfectly healthy left hand toward her.
The moment Nyx looked at his good hand, a look of pure, unadulterated excitement flushed across her face.
She licked her lips, her eyes widening with eager anticipation.
Luca chuckled. "You shouldn’t look so excited about hacking your husband apart, Nyx."
Nyx giggled, a sound like tinkling glass. "Well, you asked, my Hero. I’ve always been...curious about your physiology. This is a fascinating opportunity."
Sigrid’s instincts screamed. "Wait! What do you mean, ’hacking apart’? What is she trying to do?!"
Before she could finish, Nyx moved.
She took the heavy dagger from underneath her belt and drove it high up into the air.
"WAIT—" Sigrid shouted.
But it was too late.
Shing!
The blade came down.
Schlick!
And right before everyone’s eyes, the sword sliced through Luca’s arm right below the wrist.
His hand fell off!
It hit the ground with a soft thud and rolled to a stop, the fingers still twitching.
For a moment, there was absolute silence.
And then—
"WHAT THE HELL DID SHE JUST DO?!"
"OH MY GOD! SHE ACTUALLY CUT OFF HIS ARM!"
"I THOUGHT SHE ONLY TORTURED HER ENEMIES! WHY IS SHE DOING THE SAME TO HER OWN HUSBAND?!"
"IS SHE TRYING TO MAKE HER CHILD FATHERLESS?!"
The centaurs were in utter turmoil. They had assumed the elves loved Luca, but this looked like a psychopathic domestic hit job!
Poppy scrambled backward, squeezing her eyes shut and grabbing onto Theo’s armor.
"I take it back! I take it back!" Poppy sobbed in terror. "She’s scary! She’s a monster! Make her go away!"
Even Thea looked visibly disturbed, her jaw clenched as she stared at the pool of blood on the ground.
Sigrid was the first to regain her composure, though her voice was shaking with sheer disbelief.
"Nyx! What is wrong with you?! Why did you just cut off the Hero’s hand?!"
She paused, taking a deep breath to try and rationalize the madness.
"Look...no matter what kind of marital dispute you two are having at home, you can’t just come over here and chop his limbs off!"
Nyx wiped a stray speck of blood off her cheek, shaking her head with a light laugh.
"Oh, it’s not a domestic fight, Sigrid. My husband literally begged me to do it!"
The entire brigade went dead silent once more.
"...He asked you to cut it off?" Sigrid repeated, her brain completely short-circuiting.
"Why on earth would he ask you to do that?!"
Nyx didn’t bother explaining. Instead, she picked up the blade of a second longsword that Luca had broken from the hilt and left on top of his pile of weapons.
She gave it a couple of test swings, checking its weight, and then turned back to Luca’s bleeding stump.
And then, right before everyone’s horrified eyes, Nyx took the bottom of the second blade and jammed it directly into the open wound of Luca’s left wrist.
SPLURT!
She pushed hard, forcing the metal up into his flesh, embedding the weapon straight into his arm just like the first one.
Half the centaurs turned away, shuddering violently as they imagined the agonizing pain.
"So scary, so scary, so scary..." Poppy whimpered, hiding her face in TheA’s neck. "Tell her to leave! I don’t want this crazy elf in my kingdom!"
Nyx paid zero attention to the horror around her.
Once the sword was wedged tightly into his arm, she whipped out the blowtorch and a canister of medical adhesive that Luca had handed her earlier.
With terrifying efficiency, she blasted the wound with high heat to cauterize the bleeding, slathered on the adhesive, and wrapped the stump tightly in heavy bandages.
In less than two minutes, the job was done!
Luca now had two longswords permanently strapped to his arms, replacing both of his hands entirely.
He raised both blades, crossed them in a dramatic ’X’ before his chest, and struck a pose worthy of a stage play.
"BEHOLD!" He announced, his voice ringing with triumph. "THE DOUBLE BLADE-BEARER!"
He then proceeded to whirl the swords around in a clumsy but enthusiastic display, making whooshing noises and shouting.
"HA! TAKE THAT! AND THAT! THE PERFECT FORM!"
"I’m glad you’re satisfied, Hero." Nyx chuckled at the sight of her husband playing around like a child.
She then looked around at the pale, traumatized faces of the centaurs and gave a soft sigh.
"Well, if I stay any longer, I’m afraid I’ll give that adorable little queen over there a heart attack."
She glided over to Luca, stood on her toes, and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to his sooty cheek.
"Have fun, my love. Don’t bleed out."
With a final, casual wave to Sigrid, she turned and stepped back through the lingering portal, which snapped shut behind her.
Meanwhile, Sigrid stood there, completely stunned.
In the span of two minutes, an elf had appeared, chopped off the Hero’s hand, jammed a sword into his arm, kissed him, and left.
She slowly turned her head to look at Luca.
"...Why?" Sigrid asked, her voice hollow. "Why did you have her do that?"
Luca grinned, striking another over-the-top pose as the sunlight glinted off his twin arm-blades.
"Well, I looked at my right arm and thought, Hey, having a sword arm is pretty awesome, but only having one makes me look asymmetrical."
Luca explained, nodding to himself. "So I figured, why not chop off the other one too? That way I have a matching set! Doesn’t it look super cool?!"
"Cool...?" Sigrid repeated, her voice dripping with absolute, unadulterated disbelief.
"You had your own hand chopped off...just because you thought it would look cool?"
"Of course!" Luca said enthusiastically, giving a double jab with his new sword-hands. "This is a million times more awesome than just holding two swords normally!"
Sigrid stared at Luca, utterly baffled. She turned her head slowly toward Thea, her eyes wide in silent disbelief, as if to ask,
’Are you hearing this as well?’
Thea met her gaze with equal helplessness, as though she had just realized the Hero they had summoned possessed something very wrong in his head.
Finally, Sigrid drew a slow, shaky breath before she pointed at his bladed arms, her voice tight with controlled, simmering frustration.
"Even if it looks...impressive, as you claim." She began, each word clipped. "it is not functional."
"For example..."
She listed the flaws like a commander assessing a broken weapon.
"...you can’t adjust your grip. You can’t roll your wrist to deflect. You can’t feel the balance of a parry. You’re locked into two fixed points of contact..."
"...It is a handicap, not a style." Her tone made it clear what she thought of that trade.
But to her utter exasperation, Luca just waved his sword-hands in a dismissive gesture.
"That’s exactly the point, Sigrid." He shook his head, the blades glinting.
"If I were just holding two swords right now. It’d be boring. Too easy. This way..."
He suddenly crossed the blades before his chest with a sharp clang, striking another of his dramatic poses.
"...it levels the playing field. And, let’s be honest—it’s way cooler."
Sigrid felt the last thread of her patience snap. A hot, uncharacteristic anger flushed her cheeks.
This wasn’t just about losing now; it was about the sheer, infuriating absurdity of his disregard for everything she held sacred about combat.
"Fine, Hero!" She bit out, the words sharp. "Fine. If you truly wish to duel in such a...a parody of swordsmanship, then let us begin."
A ripple of anticipation swept through the gathered centaurs. Before, they had expected a one-sided battle with Luca as the inevitable victor.
Now, watching Luca’s casual posture beneath the commander’s imposing stance, they felt a different certainty settle over them.
’He stood no chance.’
’He would be defeated so thoroughly that the memory of this day would follow him for years.’
Yet no one could muster even a scrap of pity for him.
He’d mocked and taunted them relentlessly. He deserved whatever was coming.
So they aligned themselves firmly behind Sigrid, silently urging her to end this quickly and reclaim the honor he had so carelessly trampled.
"You can do it, Sigrid!" Poppy’s voice rang out across the highlands, bright with absolute certainty. "Show him why you’re my first knight!"
Sigrid nodded, never taking her eyes off Luca. She reached into her pocket and withdrew a white handkerchief.
"I will throw this in a moment, Hero. The instant it touches the ground, the duel begins." .
She saw no need for an elaborate ceremony—this duel did not warrant Poppy’s official oversight, nor anyone else’s.
A simple handkerchief would suffice.
And seeing that that there was no rebuttal from Luca, she tossed it high.
Whoosh!
The white square climbed into the sky, twisting gently in the breeze. Sigrid’s fingers tightened around her sword. Across from her, Luca smiled.
Every gaze in the valley followed that handkerchief upward—and then downward.
Poppy watched it. The younger centaurs, amateurs still learning their first forms, watched it. The grizzled veterans, scarred from decades of battle, watched it.
For one suspended moment, the entire highlands held its breath. Until finally—
The handkerchief touched the grass with barely a whisper.
Swoosh!
Sigrid’s sword rose immediately. Not with the full devastating power she had displayed before—she felt Luca did not deserve that, and she had no desire to cause more damage than necessary.
But it was still fast. Still lethal. Still more than enough to incapacitate a mortal man and teach him the distance between their worlds.
Everyone thought the battle was over. One strike. That was all it would take.
But Luca merely smirked at the descending blade.
His own sword arm swung up to meet it.
CLANG!
Steel crashed against steel.
And to the utter shock of every witness—Luca did not move. He stood exactly where he had been.
Instead—it was Sigrid’s crimson blade that was knocked away!
It arced once, twice, catching the sunlight like a bloody star—before wedging itself deep into the earth.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Some centaurs blinked rapidly, trying to clear their vision. Others rubbed their eyes entirely, as though doubting their own sight.
Then the commotion erupted.
"WHAT IN THE HELLS DID I JUST WITNESS?" One shouted.
"DID THE HERO JUST KNOCK AWAY THE COMMANDER’S BLADE? TELL ME MY EYES ARE LYING TO ME!"
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? ONE ATTACK—ONE ATTACK—AND HE DISARMED HER?"