Felicity's Beas Chapter 136: You Looked At Her

Chapter 136: You Looked At Her

The yard no longer sounded like a training ground. The ringing of steel had faded minutes ago. The spectators lining the stone wall had stopped talking. Even the wind felt reluctant to move through the open space.

Only breathing remained.

Two n stood in the center of the ring.

Lucan and Damien.

Dust clung to them both. Damien’s poison had left thin burning lines across Lucan’s ribs and arms, the toxin eating shallow trails through bronze skin that still refused to fall. Damien’s jaw had already begun swelling where Lucan’s elbow had landed earlier in the exchange. Both n stood close enough now that the duel had beco personal rather than performative.

This was no longer a demonstration it had turned feral.

Damien moved without warning. His poisoned hand snapped toward Lucan’s throat with the speed of a striking viper, toxin glimring faintly across his fingers. The sll of it carried sharply through the air.

Lucan vanished the strike cut empty air.

Damien pivoted instantly, anticipating the reappearance. His elbow lashed backward with brutal precision.

Lucan materialized directly into the counter the crack of impact echoed across the yard.

Lucan staggered half a step.

Damien surged forward, poison flashing again.

Lucan twisted, the toxin slicing a burning line across his ribs before he teleported sideways. Damien tracked him imdiately. Lucan reappeared inside his guard. Their bodies collided hard. Lucan’s fist buried deep into Damien’s side and forced the breath from his lungs. Damien answered by dragging poisoned fingers across Lucan’s arm, leaving another burning streak. Lucan hissed through his teeth then he smiled. It was not a pleasant expression the silver of his eyes had sharpened.

Lucan drove forward again instead of retreating. Damien t him head-on. Shoulder slamd into chest. Forehead cracked against forehead. Hands tangled, twisted, struck, blocked. Lucan flickered through space in violent bursts while Damien hunted each reappearance with relentless brutality.

The exchange accelerated until it looked less like a duel and more like two predators tearing at each other then it ended.

Lucan teleported above Damien and drove his foot down across Damien’s shoulder blade with crushing force.

Damien hit the dirt.

Lucan landed beside him.

Damien rolled imdiately, poison flashing upward again, but Lucan had already moved.

Both n rose again.

Both breathing hard.

Dimitri stopped breathing halfway through the analysis forming in his mind.

If Lucan could defeat Damien while poisoned...

then Victor might actually lose.

Lucan wiped blood from the corner of his mouth and tasted iron, his eyes flicked once toward the wall. Toward the small girl watching from Victor’s back, she had not looked away once.

Damien flexed his poisoned fingers slowly for a mont the yard held absolute silence.

Then Lucan moved again three strikes and a teleport , one final impact.

Damien hit the ground again and stayed there.

Lucan stood over him only long enough to confirm the outco before stepping back. The victory had co suddenly, violently, and with the sa quiet certainty that defined everything Lucan did.

The yard exhaled.

Felicity moved first.

She slipped from where she had been clinging to Victor’s back and darted across the ring before anyone stopped her. Dust scattered beneath her shoes as she ran straight to Damien "Damien!"

Damien pushed himself up halfway just in ti to catch her as she reached him. His arms wrapped around her waist automatically and lifted her clean off the ground, the movent carried the montum of the fight and he spun once before setting her down again. He kissed her hard not polite and not restrained.

The growl rose before Lucan could stop it, it crawled up the back of his throat like sothing ancient and territorial, his fingers curled slowly into his palm.

She was in Damien’s arms Felicity pulled away breathless. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes bright "oh."

"He beat Damien while poisoned?" Sarge stared, stunned.

She looked around suddenly.

"Heal."

Warm light spread outward from her hands like sunrise breaking across the yard. The glow rolled over the ring and spilled across the watching teams.

Lucan felt it imdiately. The poison burning through his blood vanished as if it had never existed. The cuts across his ribs sealed. The lingering aches in his muscles dissolved. Even the old scars buried deep beneath his skin seed to loosen.

Across the ring the others felt it too. Leaf Team straightened in stunned silence as the warmth passed through them.

Then Felicity raised her hands again "and buff." second wave followed the first. Strength settled into muscles. Breath ca easier. The air itself felt lighter.

Lucan looked down at his hands slowly.

Then Felicity stepped toward him, her expression held soft concern "are you okay?"

Lucan lifted his gaze to et hers. The silver of his eyes had softened now. He bowed his head slightly and took her hand with careful gentleness before pressing a kiss against her knuckles "now I am." His voice dropped lower "sweetie."

Felicity froze.

Damien’s glare sharpened like a blade.

Across the yard Exile stood very still. Exile had not moved since the healing wave passed over him. His eyes followed Felicity the way predators watch small animals wander too close, the word slipped out before he realized he had spoken it "Mine."

Dawn’s eyebrow rose slowly.

Dimitri stopped thinking entirely.

The strategist who had been watching everything with quiet calculation suddenly felt his understanding of the situation begin to fracture. His gaze moved from Felicity to Lucan, then Damien, then Victor as the pieces rearranged themselves into sothing far more complicated.

The healing wave rolled through the yard.

Dimitri straightened slowly, his bruised back no longer hurt, his eyes lifted toward Felicity interesting.

Ivan glanced from Felicity to Lucan and then to Victor, is grin slowly widened "oh," he murmured "this is going to get ssy."

Victor stepped forward cold pressure rolled through the yard, the duel had not ended. Victor’s voice carried across the ring "Lucan."

Lucan lifted his head.

Victor stepped fully into the circle now, his presence changing the atmosphere imdiately. Damien stepped aside with Felicity still close to him, watching with quiet intensity. Victor’s eyes locked on Lucan "you still have another fight." When Victor stepped into the ring, Damien stepped back, not out of respect but out of experience.

Lucan’s gaze followed Felicity as she returned to Damien’s side, a quiet thought slid through his mind if I wanted her... none of them could stop , Lucan’s silver gaze sharpened again.

The yard held its breath once more.

"Victor’s actually serious..." Legend muttered.

Victor crossed the distance in one step.

Lucan barely had ti to teleport before Victor’s fist shattered the ground where his head had been no testing strike no circling.

Victor attacked with the pressure of soone who intended to break the man in front of him, the first blow forced Lucan backward, dust exploded beneath their feet. Victor did not slow.

The second strike ca harder the third ca faster.

Lucan teleported to avoid the next impact, reappearing several steps away as the force of Victor’s attack cracked the ground where he had stood. Lucan teleported again.

Victor caught him anyway, his hand closed around Lucan’s throat.

The entire yard froze.

Victor leaned close enough that only Lucan could hear him. "You looked at her" Victor’s grip tightened.

Lucan felt the pressure imdiately. Victor’s fingers were not rely strong; they were immovable, like iron closing around his throat. The teleport that normally slipped him out of danger flickered uselessly through his mind. Victor had anticipated the displacent point. The angle. The distance.

Victor had already accounted for it.

Lucan’s boots barely touched the dirt now.

The entire yard remained frozen. Dust drifted slowly through the sunlight between them.

Victor studied his expression for a long second. Then he smiled it was not friendly the pressure increased.

Lucan’s fingers closed around Victor’s wrist. Muscles in his forearm flexed, veins rising beneath bronze skin as he tried to break the grip.

Nothing moved. Along the stone wall the spectators shifted uneasily.

Ivan leaned forward slightly "well," he murmured quietly.

Voss’s eyes never left the ring "That’s Victor holding back."

Ivan glanced at him "You sure?"

Voss didn’t answer.

Across the yard Dimitri watched the scene unfold with frightening focus. His mind was already racing through probabilities, recalculating every assumption he had made about the two n now standing in the ring.

Victor had closed the distance faster than Lucan could teleport. That alone should not have been possible, which ant Victor had predicted the destination point, which ant Victor had been studying Lucan’s teleport patterns during the Damien fight.

Dimitri’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Back in the ring Lucan’s grip on Victor’s wrist tightened further, teleportation flickered again.

Victor’s other hand shot forward instantly.

Lucan vanished.

Victor’s fist slamd into empty air.

Lucan reappeared several steps away, boots sliding across the dirt as he caught his balance.

The yard exhaled sharply.

Lucan rolled his shoulder once, fingers brushing lightly across the red marks already forming along his throat.

Victor watched him without moving. The silence stretched. Then Victor stepped forward again the pressure returned imdiately.

Lucan felt it before the first strike even ca.

Victor attacked Fast, far faster than Damien had been.

Lucan teleported sideways.

Victor was already there the blow that followed drove into Lucan’s ribs hard enough to lift him partially off the ground a crack echoed through the yard.

Lucan slid backward across the dirt.

Gasps rippled along the wall.

Felicity’s fingers tightened unconsciously around Damien’s sleeve.

Lucan straightened slowly.

Victor did not chase he waited and watched, asuring.

Lucan lifted his head again.

Silver eyes t Victor’s. The air between them felt heavier now. More dangerous.

Lucan wiped a thin line of blood from his lip with the back of his hand.

Then he smiled. It was not a pleasant smile.

The sa one Damien had seen earlier.

Victor’s eyes sharpened slightly.

Across the yard Ivan let out a quiet laugh.

"Oh," he said softly.

"Now it’s getting fun."

Lucan straightened slowly, rolling his shoulder as if the fight had barely touched him Lucan lifted his head and looked straight at her.

Victor noticed imdiately. "Again," he said quietly. "Or are you done?"

Lucan’s mouth curved slightly "ask her."

The words shifted the air. Felicity blinked, caught off guard "...what?"

Lucan didn’t look away "if she tells

to stop, I will."

Victor didn’t react outwardly, but sothing in the space changed, it pressed in closer.

"Sweetie," Lucan added, softer.

Felicity’s breath caught, and Damien’s arm tightened around her waist on instinct.

Victor stepped forward, slow and deliberate "careful."

Lucan smiled "or what?"

Victor’s gaze dropped briefly to Damien’s hand on her before returning to Lucan "you’re forgetting sothing."

Lucan tilted his head slightly.

"She doesn’t belong to you."

Lucan’s eyes darkened as they flicked back to her "no," he said quietly.

"Not yet."