Queen beats pawn.

The Mongrel snarled

"What gives you the right to challenge me?"

I ignored him and turned to the forming crowd,

"Do you not want to see Bete, the god from the Loki Familia beat down a level one? You do right? well, I'm afraid that won't be happening as the Mongrel himself refuses. I guess he is more dog than a man."

A guttural snarl escaped Bete's mouth as he charged straight for my throat, he would have made contact if not for the Level 6 adventurer standing behind the bar, she grabbed both myself and Bete and threw us outside.

"Not in my bar"

I smiled at her, even sending her a subtle wink as I turned towards the raging Dog.

"So we are now outside, is this happening or not?"

Ais stepped in once more and said

"You don't have to do this, we can always s"

Before she could finish, a red-haired woman stepped out of the Bar,

"Ais leave the two alone, the Level one asked for this by provoking Bete, let him learn his lesson."

Ais stood back, guessing by the power coming off her, she is one of the strongest in this Familia and if she stood down at those words, the one speaking must be my fated enemy Loki.

I bowed towards Loki,

"It is a pleasure to be in the presence of such an important God, this lowly level one greets you."

A howl erupted to my right,

"A waste of air like you has no right to talk to Loki-Sama."

I dodged to the left as a claw impacted the floor where I was standing,

"That wasn't nice, we hadn't discussed terms for our duel yet."

The only response I got was another claw coming swinging at my face, I lent back dodging the blow barely, turning to the boy who had moved to the front of the group watching us, I said

"If your opponent has more strength, speed, endurance or magic than you, never panic, just try and gauge his abilities the best you can without putting yourself at risk. If you find that you can't win no matter what you do then simply do not fight, retreat, gather strength and fight another day."

I proceeded to duck under a claw that went straight for my head, the speed and strength of the attack cut a bit of my long black hair off. I will need to find a hairdresser after this, assuming this world has something like that, I have also missed four naps since I arrived here. Tomorrow will be a resting da-

*Bang*

A claw slammed into my stomach while I dreamt of sleep once again, looking down at my stomach, there was barely any damage, judging by the strength difference, I was expecting a broken rib or the like but nothing but a scratch.

"Lesson two, never get distracted by your thoughts during a fight, this can be the difference between life and death, do not overthink during a fight, just do."

I said as I sidestepped another attack,

"Lesson three is important, experience is vital to surviving, not just levelling up, the experience of life and death situations, to conquer the feeling of impending death, that will set you free. Only by experiencing troubles can you expand your abilities because if you survive, you understand the battle that occurred and the powers used better than you ever can from a book."

*Slam*

This time the claw that hit me slammed me to the floor, pain erupted all over my body, this time he put his full strength into it, I can feel pain travel up and down my body. Hahaha, I think he fractured a rib, I guess it is time to take this seriously.

*Spit*

On instinct I spat the blood that was pooling in my mouth onto the floor, then I remembered how good it tasted, I mean I just wasted it right?

...

Scratch that, placing my hand on my sword, I gently drew it from its sheath, placing the blade gently on my shoulders, I gestured for the wolf to come at me, as he did a shout echoed out.

"Bete don't, I can feel-"

Before Bete could hear the rest of what Ais was saying, silver light shone from Retirement's handle, the light spread up the blade as a large smile occupied my face, the closer Bete got, the less likely he is to dodge my intent.

As he closed in, I released the intent, a blade of pure sword energy sliced across his torso, he froze expecting something to happen to him and when nothing did, a mocking laugh erupted from his mouth before he launched himself at me aggressively, my smile never left my face, another fool took the bait.

Blow after blow rained down on my body as I struggled to block the aggressive moves of the wolf with my sword, although I could if I focused hard enough, my true objective? To make him forget about my attack, occupy him with thoughts of victory and wait for my own.

*Twang*

He deflected my sword, forcing it from my grip and it flew towards the crowd, AIs utilising her speed stopped it from hurting anyone, seeing me unarmed and injured Bete walked towards me, laughing he snarled

"Not so impressive are you now swordsman?"

I nodded my head and responded with

"Three."

He looked at me confused, I continued.

"Two"

He ran towards me, lifting me up he screamed

"What are you counting down for?"

As I dangled under his grip, I continued again

"One"

As if responding to me, a large wound erupted on his stomach, blood spewed out of the cut, painting his armour a deep red, he dropped me as he went into shock, to their credit, his Familia responded quickly, stabilising his condition. I smiled at the crowd as I went towards the location of my sword, wiping it of the dirt it had collected, I placed it back in its home at my side.

I then walked to the now sleeping Bete, Ais went on guard as did some dwarf, I smiled at them both before I arrived in front of Loki, taking the queen piece from my pocket, I placed it in her hand before saying.

"A Queen will always beat a pawn, never forget that."

I then walked away, it is finally time for a nap...