"That''s impossible." The man running the y pir cutting event said after he finished counting the number of clean cuts Mrazivy had inflicted.


    Each one was half a centimeter apart and she had urately cut through the two-meter-tall pir four hundred times.


    Frankly it was a feat that could be described as above even superhuman. She had even finished a whole second before her time was up.


    "So, I won the grand prize, right? I mean I clearly through the pir more than two hundred times." Mrazivy said, with a boastful smile on her face.


    Of course, the staff running the event did not want to simply give away the item that was meant to draw attention to their contest.


    "I am sorry, but these cuts are so perfect it is hard to believe that they came from a sword! You must have cheated in some manner!" The man shouted so that everyone around could hear. "I for one did not even see what it was you were doing! I find it highly likely that you used some sort of magic spell or tool to inflict these cuts and try to swindle us! It is strange that a foreigner like you would even be here in the first ce!"


    After the man yelled out his usations, many among the crowd began to whisper amongst themselves and were agreeing that something seemed fishy.


    To them what Mrazivy had aplished was impossible. Well beyond the level of skill of even powerful individuals. This was simply how iprehensible Mrazivy''s abilities were.


    Unfortunately, for the event operates, Mrazivy was not here alone and had someone with a great deal of sway to vouch for her.


    "Excuse me, but are you saying that a guest of my n is a cheater? You must have an awful lot of evidence to back your usation up. If you don''t, I will find it to be a personal insult to my n." Amira said, stepping up and defending Mrazivy.


    ring down at her, the man running the event scoffed at Amira when he saw how young she was.


    "Before you continue, I might inform you that I am Tb Guhbaa and this event has the backing of the head of the Guhbaa n, Yazan." The man said haughtily.


    The Guhbaa n was among the more influential ns and typically considered only under the six major ns. Making those running the event and trying to have Mrazivy disqualified hoping to use their authority to get Amira to back down.


    Sadly, they picked a fight with the wrong person, and should have figured that someone as strong as Mrazivy was likely to be associated with one of the six major ns.


    "Allow me to return your warning, before you make even bigger of a fool of yourself, Tb Guhbaa. I am Amira Eazim, daughter of Malik Eazim the head of the Eazim n, and great granddaughter of Akeem Eazim, our grand elder. The woman you have used of cheating is a personal guest of my n and my great grandfather. I can assure you that her skills are more than capable of the feat she just disyed." Amira said, amanding air about her.


    Everyone around hearing that Amira was of the main family of the Eazim n lowered their heads and backed away, while Tb stood stunned as he looked down at her.


    ''It looks like that killed all of his bravado. I wonder what his next move will be. I kind of hope he tries digging deeper.'' Marcus thought, enjoying watching the man who used his wife of cheating squirm.


    However, Tb was not an idiot and realized that he was outmatched in terms of rank. In a ss-based society those lower on the pecking order had to submit to those above them unless they had a good justification not to.


    "Please allow me to apologize to you Lady Amira, for my ignorance. I did not know that this woman was a guest of your n. It must be as you said, her skills are so transcendent that I could not see them properly. I ask for your forgiveness for my hasty usation." Tb said, getting down onto his knees and bowing down.


    Those around him running the event followed suit and could only pray that Amira would not bring down the weight of the Eazim n on them.


    "Very well. I will overlook this. But you must apologize to Mraz as well. It is she that you insulted the most." Amira said.


    Turning his body Tb bowed his head to Mrazivy and apologized. Though it was clear he did not mean a word of what he said.


    "I ept your apology." Mrazivy said nonchntly, not really caring so long as she got what she had won. "Now, I will ept my prize."


    Standing up, Tb put on his best business smile, and said, "Of course. Allow us to properly wrap it and we will have it promptly shipped to the Eazim n for you."


    "Oh, there is no need for that." Mrazivy said, walking up to the phoenix talon and cing it directly into her item box.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    Tb went wide eyed when he saw this, and any hope he had of keeping ahold of the talon was dashed.


    He had rapidly beening up with a n to have the carriage transporting the talon attacked in order to retrieve the item, but that would be impossible now.


    "Welp, we got what we came for. Shall we get going." Mrazivy said, rejoining Marcus and Amira.


    "Yes, I Think it would be best if we were on our way. It is time for lunch anyway. I made sure that we have a reservation at a high-quality restaurant in the area." Amira said, leading the way.


    It took them around half an hour to arrive at the restaurant, and just from the entrance it was clearly a high-ss establishment that only served the best food.


    Sadly, Marcus knew he had more pressing matter to deal with and promptly excused himself to the restroom.


    ''Time to go see what I can dig up.'' He thought, before disappearing.


    Now back in his ghost form, Marcus phased out of the building and quickly flew back to where the pir cutting event was being held.


    Immediately he noticed that there were almost no people around and the event had closed down early. Clearly, they were too rattled by losing their top prize that was their headliner to continue.


    Floating around, Marcus passed through a few buildings, before he found the one the members of the Guhbaa n were congregated in.


    With a single looked Marcus could see that they were distressed.


    "Damn it!" Tb yelled before mming his hand against the table he was sitting at.


    The marble b that topped the table cracked when he hit it, showing that he was not particrly low level.


    "Yazan is going to have our heads when he finds out we lost the talon. No one was supposed to be able to win it. Not even the strongest fighter we have could do that with those crappy weapons." Tb said, his face warped into a fearful expression.


    Apparently, the talon was just meant to attract attention and they never nned on giving it away. Hence why Tb had resorted to calling Mrazivy a cheater in order to keep it.


    Marcus also learned that the talon had actually been found by the Guhbaa n around twelve years ago near a roc''s nest, hence why they thought it belong to that type of beast. It was one of their elder''s favorite show pieces and only after much convincing from Tb did he loan it to them to attract more attention to the y pir cutting event in order to bring in more money. In a way, it was the perfect scam. As long as no one extraordinary like Mrazivy showed up.


    "It is not toote yet. We can still get it back." One of Tb''s men said.


    "What do you have in mind? We cannot publicly oppose the Eazim n. If we push them it, will be more than just our lives on the line."


    "Yes, it would be bad if we made an enemy out of the Eazim n, but that girl Amira is wandering around the festival with only a small contingent of guards. It happens quite often that ruffians cause a stir during the festival and start brawls in the streets. We simply need to orchestrate one, kill everyone around, and kidnap that foreign woman. It might take a while, but eventually we can ''convince'' her to open up her item box and give us back the roc talon. Then we need only dispose of her." One of Tb''s men said.


    The others quickly jumped onboard this n since it seemed like their only option. Their n''s elder was a ruthless man and had no problem with getting rid of those who failed him. Those assisting Tb could at best hope for being exiled, while Tb was certain he would not be keeping his head.


    "Okay, gather up the best fighters you can. Assign some men to follow their group. Hire assassins as well. If we get the talon back, we can use it to make whatever money we spend back. Even if we do not make as much as projected, so long as we get the talon back everything should be fine." Tb said, a look of anticipation on his face. He was desperate to do anything to cover up his mistake.


    Yet, unbeknownst to any of them, an ethereal individual had heard their entire conversation and now knew of their n.


    ''Hm, how do I want to y this? Should I just wipe them all out now and avoid the hassle, or try to catch them in the act?'' Marcus thought, floating above Tb who had no idea how screwed he was.