’What is...’

The final fight finally started. The audience were excited, so excited to see who would be qualified for the final stage among the first group.

That was the last fight. Fafnir versus a woman who won in two rounds too, surviving the gravity and the lava. Though unlike him, she actually had to fight under the weight of gravity.

As the audience already knew, the final zone was the lightning zone. It was completely made of metal, and the rods were shooting lightning from the top in the form of pulses, and the bottom was shooting lightning into the floor in the form of surges.

That’s what everyone knew.

They had witnessed the last fights here. The competitors jumped like monkeys whenever a surge of electricity moved through the floor, and they couldn’t let their guard down even in the air, as the lightning pulses could catch them.

But now as Fafnir had to fight his opponent, a woman holding a spear... the sight in front of them was completely different.

"Are the rods broken?"

"Broken? That’s like an intentional control!"

"He’s cheating!"

"Now cheating? Weren’t you calling that a fair fight?"

"A fair fight if the rods worked properly!"

"...Maybe he can control electricity?"

"My brain would explode if I tried to control that!"

In front of the audience, the duchess, and the narrator, the lightning moved strangely.

The rods that were supposed to shoot randomly... they were instead targeting only one person.

And that person was the spear woman!

"Damn it!"

The spear woman rotated her spear rapidly like a tornado, blocking as much as she could from the lightning pulses.

Still, several pulses struck her, burning her body and paralyzing it. Several spots on her body were already black, giving off a rich scent of cooked meat.

Once the surges of lightning moved through the floor, she immediately jumped into the air, only to be caught by a continuous attack of lightning.

"..."

Fafnir didn’t even move.

The surge of lightning on the floor "coincidentally" split before reaching him, leaving the spot he was standing on safe.

The pulses of lightning targeted only the spear woman, leaving Fafnir, who wore metallic armor and wielded a metallic sword, completely safe.

"Haha, Hahahaha! I can’t... I can’t breathe... I think I’ll die again... ahaha!"

Greed was laughing crazily on the side, rolling on the floor like a maniac.

It didn’t happen once, not twice... It kept happening since the beginning of the fight!

The surges of the lightning never touched him. Not a single pulse of electricity shot anything but the spear woman.

Most people couldn’t help but think that Fafnir was cheating!

"No, he can’t be cheating. Not in front of the duchess!" A man remarked, and everyone agreed with him.

They trusted the duchess so much that the possibility of Fafnir cheating without her knowledge seemed impossible.

That left only a few possibilities...

’Is she... intentionally helping him?’ no one dared to mutter that thought aloud.

First was the gravity, and now the lightning. The theories were going crazy within their heads.

If she truly was helping him, they wouldn’t be able to do anything but stay silent. Accusing the duchess of such a thing could lead to their execution.

It was frustrating for many of them, but they valued their lives.

Unknown to them... the duchess met the gaze of Anas and Emilia, then shook her head and sighed.

"No, I’m not helping."

She was as confused as them!

But if anything, that only made her grow more interested in Fafnir, a faint smirk playing on her face while watching him.

"Emilia, do you have any idea about what we’re witnessing here?"

Emilia squinted: "M-maybe he’s just lucky?"

"Yes, lucky enough to get the help of an artifact that attacks randomly. So believable." The Duchess’s smirk widened.

"..."

Despite being a shadow, Fafnir felt a shiver running down his nonexistent spine. But he ignored it. There was something more concerning now.

’I increased her misfortune a bit... but there is no way the effect is that intense.’

Not even Fafnir could understand the problem.

He looked at Greed from the corner of his eyes, but he didn’t want to ask him. Maybe he was afraid of being manipulated... and maybe he was scared of hearing the answer.

First with the gravity, and now this. It was likely something related to luck... but what kind of luck could cause this?

’Unfortunately, only my master can know. I can’t even see the Wheel of Luck of the others.’

Fafnir sighed as a bunch of shadow swords and spears materialized next to him, either burning with dark flames or covered with arcs of intense lightning.

’I feel like I can win without even doing anything, but I don’t want to drag the fight.’

Fafnir looked at the woman with empathy. He could clearly remember that his first and only death was caused by lightning.

Gulp!

The woman shivered, half in fear and half from the lightning, as she stared at the spears and the swords aiming at her.

"Give up." Fafnir wrote as a last warning.

The woman bit her lower lip until it bled. Eventually, she decided to open her mouth: "I—!"

RUMBLE!

At that moment, all the rods shot lightning together.

The surge in the floor paralyzed her completely, as she couldn’t jump in time.

With her defense fully open, the pulses of lightning landed on her head at the same time. Her head was fried by the lightning, and her brain stopped working.

"..."

The audience stared at that sight with their jaws dropped in shock and disbelief.

She died and fell onto the floor.

The spears and blades that Fafnir had manifested served no purpose. For the second time, Fafnir won by just standing there!

"She died! Hehe hahaha!"

Greed laughed in amusement, jumping over the dead body of the woman.

’I... didn’t really want her to die.’

Well, he couldn’t really blame himself. He just stood there...

"AHEM!" The narrator cleared his throat, snapping everyone out of their daze: "A-a strange turn of events... but it’s time to announce the winner!" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"The winner is our lovely silver knight... who fought only one person... FAFNIR!"

Unlike Fafnir’s expectations, no one cheered for him.

’...What the hell is happening in the Abyss?’

’Or... is my win truly harmful to my master?’