Chapter 10: Upset

Eve sat hunched up on the bench of the Arena with a great pout on her beautiful face, her cheeks puffed up comically and her palms resting against her knees. Around her were her companions who just couldn't help but smile at her. The ever mature elf that is Rena patted the nasod queen on the head as she spoke to her, "Come on, Eve… stop sulking already."

The Nasod turned at her still with her puffed up cheeks before throwing her arm to the side, pointing straight toward Elsword, "But Rena… HE CHEATED!" The redhead rune slayer bent his body on the waist as he complained back, "Hey, I didn't cheat! It was totally legit. It's not like I wasn't hurt when hit, you know!" The two looked at each other as the sparks of rivalry between them was nearly visible much to the amusement of the others.

They were interrupted by the female voice that they were starting to familiarize with, "If I have to say… Elsword was right that he didn't violate the rule… but that was also totally a dishonorable and cheap tactic, though. I certainly don't remember ever teaching you to fight like that, little brother." The group turned to the side and found Elesis approaching with Chung next to her. The Hamel prince waved his arm as he spoke, "Good battle, guys. The crowd was totally excited… I have to agree with Eve and Elesis though; using stoic all the time to reduce damage and brush off attacks was a cheap move even for you, Elsword."

This time, it was the Rune Knight's turn to pout as he crossed his arm over his chest as he spoke, "Geez, fine. Take her side, will you… but a win in a win. Who cares how it happened, it's your fault for not preparing for it when you know that I can do it. Besides, you owed me for shooting my butt with that electric thing in Velder. I couldn't sit for a week, so just consider it even."

That's right, after several clashes of weapons and skills, Elsword had finally decided to use the cheapest and most deplorable tactic in his arsenal. He enhanced his physical endurance to the limit with magic in order to allow himself to attack without limit. The first victim of his tactic, unfortunately, was Eve whose skills in melee were practically non-existent. Sure, Rena and Raven tried to support her but with Aisha and Ara getting in their way, even they can't be at two places at the same time. Thus the moment Elsword managed to get past her defense, the silver-haired nasod's defeat was nothing else but assured.

When the balance of number crumbled, Raven and Rena were hard pressed to defend against their three attackers. It wasn't that their efforts were unrewarded; using double team tactic, they managed to take Aisha out of the fight by preventing her from effectively charging for mana. Unfortunately, they still ended up losing with Rena falling victim to Ara's Dragon combo before Elsword's Luna Blade finished her off.

Raven, facing the two-on-one situation tried his best to turn the situation around but even he couldn't take on both of them without midrange support. Even with his awakening his nasod drone and rage, in the end, he was defeated by combination of Elsword's Phoenix talon and Ara's flying kite, awarding victory to the opposing team.

After the match, all of them were admitted to the infirmary to get their battle wounds treated. Fortunately, thanks to the magic tag system, none of them had anything worse than minor flesh wounds. It then led to their current situation as Eve was sulking about their defeat much to the amusement of the people present.

Finally, Rena decided to change the topic as she turned to Elesis, "By the way, where's mom? I didn't see her since we left for the Arena." The female knight turned at the elf as she answered her, "She's going to Sanders as a messenger. With the water priestess kidnapped, we were worried about the condition of the other priestesses. Sanders was the closest shrine city from Hamel and house of the wind shrine, she volunteered to go there since she's technically out of job with you guys here. Speaking of which…." The red knight commander trailed off for a moment as she rummaged her dress pocket before withdrawing a white envelope from inside and handing it to Rena, "She told me to give this to you."

Rena tilted her head slightly in confusion as she received the envelope. Afterall, the last time her mother ran away from home, she didn't even leave so much of a goodbye. The others gathered around her as they too were curious about the content of the envelope. The Grand Archer opened the envelope and removed several pages of paper from it. The first paper was surprisingly a letter, it's content was short, "Glad to see you doing fine, Rena. See you later, maybe we will see each other again. Love you, Mom "

This time Rena punched the wall next to her while everyone sees the vein pulsating on her forehead, "So she ran away… AGAIN. Wait till I get my hands on her… I swear I'll freeze her and use her as ornament on top of Ruben Forest…." The group looked at the usually mellow Grand Archer with a sweatdrop on them as they couldn't help but pity the escaping elf…. It looked like the relationship between this mother and child was rockier than they thought.

Suddenly, Aisha pointed to a section of the letter, "Hey, there's more…." Rena turned her attention back and sure enough, there was another line near the bottom of the letter, "PS: Can you pay for my debt at the bar too? Thanks~ Tehehe~ ;P" Rena seemed to freeze for a moment as she flipped the letter to the back of the pile and studied the other papers… before noticing that they were bills… addressed to her.

For a moment, there was silence among the group but every one of them started to step away from the Grand Archer. Suddenly, before their eyes, Rena seemed to exude a fiery aura not unlike something that they normally associate with Raven's rage. In fact, they could have sworn that her hair had risen by itself as if possessed. Finally, the elf snapped as she screamed to the top of her lung as she exploded in rage, "MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"