OPEROSE | Neteyam X Reader (18+)

CH15 A Lovely Duel

The next morning was spent mainly playing along the seawall terrace. We sat on the shallowest region of the terrace to catch fishes using wooden spears. Everyone except the adults and Vi were here. Aonung said Vi isn't feeling well so she's spending the day off today. It made me wonder if they unlinked her avatar and she told on me, but they would've disconnected me too if that were the case.

She's keeping her word, that she's not going to do anything not until we're at hell's gate. Atleast I can rest easy for now.

I still haven't told Neteyam about what Vi and I talked about and I don't ever plan to. Just like what the girl said, Neteyam and I only have little time together. I wouldn't want to spoil it with negativity. What I want is to spend each moment with him in nothing but joy and bliss. We atleast deserve that given that we're slaves of this awful predicament.

"You have a terrible aim," Neteyam says, trying to annoy me.

I was trying to jab a fish with my spear but them being little fast nimble shits makes it difficult to do so. In the span of 30 minutes, I've only caught one. And it's really irritiating me.

"Can't believe we actually found something Y/N's not good at," Kiri says, jumping in to the hate train.

"You guys," I say as I pierced the wooden stick deep onto the sand and looked at the laughing bunch. "Next place this spear's going is into all of your lovely eyes,"

"It's fine, baby" Neteyam walks closer to me and softly pats my back. "Just be honest and admit it" He says, still teasing me.

I unscrew my spear from the sand and held it so that it would lift Neteyam's chin up. "The only thing I'm admitting to is that I can make use of this wooden fuck-stick in beating your ass."

He grabs my spear and pulls it down. "Is that a challenge?" He asks, although already knowing the answer to his question.

Just like that, we were both at the center of attention of all the Metkayina people who were also situated at the seawall terrace. Most of those here were also teenagers, so imagine, no one was stopping the duel from happening because rather, they were encouraging it. Even Neteyam's siblings didn't question the fight. I'm just assuming they want to see their eldest 'perfect' sibling beaten up by his younger girlfriend.

"You still have a chance to back out," I tell Neteyam past the loud cheers as we walked in circles, facing each other.

"Nah. It's time you learn to listen to your elders, baby" He replies in a cocky manner.

I twist my spear, getting myself into a fighting position, while Neteyam only lets his spear lay on his shoulders, acting carefree as if he could easily beat me.

"Let the duel, begin!" Lo'ak says with a wide smile on his face, thrilled for what's to come. He's so excited that he's even acting as a referee. What a cute boy.

We warily moved closer to one another, letting the end of our spears touch.

I initiate first, pointing the sharp end and running towards him with it.

Neteyam swiftly moves to the side to dodge and grabs the edgeless part of my spear. When he got a proper grip on the weapon, he uses his strength to push the spear back into me, making the other end of the spear jab my stomach.

I whince as Neteyam releases his hold on my weapon.

Unexpectedly, the boy is not going easy on me, and it seems that he also doesn't aim on doing so anytime soon.

Where did my gentleman go?

I didn't expect that he'd be a sucker for winning.

But even if that's the case, I, too, am a sucker for winning. He's so not gonna win this.

The people's reaction to what he had just pulled told me one thing in general. They are not on Neteyam's side.

The both of us particularly heard someone yell "Don't hurt a lady!". Because of it, Neteyam relaxes his stance for a while and looks at the crowd, upset by the comment.

"Come on, how would I even win if I don't?" He replies, his forehead puckered.

Aw, is he not aware of the most vital rule in dueling? He's gotten too insouciant.

"Eyes on me," I tell him before striking his neck. However, what caught me off guard was that he was able to block my spear just in time using his own spear.

"Woah," He blurts out from the sudden action. "You can do better than that, Y/N. Really? Striking when your opponent's not looking?"

"Sorry, baby, I was starting to get jealous of you staring at other girls" I jokingly retort as I striked him again aiming at his waist, although he manages to block it again.

What followed after were a series of collision of our spears. Everyone was practically astonished with how on par our skills were. Each hit and slice would always be obscured by the other. Neither of us were backing down.

It got to the point where it was just starting to be tiring, rather than exhilarating. Knowing this, I opted on changing my tactic.

I draw my weapon and move away from Neteyam, now waiting for him to strike first.

"You sure you're switching to defensive?" He asks realizing what I'm tryna do, with a tone still as cocky as ever.

"Come at me, my pretty prince" I tell him with a light smirk, making myself look as if I'm frail and open.

He chuckles at the prince endearment, this not being the first time I've referred to him as one. "Your wish is my command," He replies.

Neteyam attempts to strike me down once more however, instead of blocking like what we've been doing, I dodge his spear and when his wrist was in full view, I hit his wrist with the dull part of the spear. Because of this, Neteyam loses strength on his hands for a bit, causing him to drop his spear. I take the chance to kick his feet which makes him fall onto the ground. I then hover above the guy, sitting on him, and pointing the edged point of my spear to his neck.

"You love me too much, Neteyam. You should've hit me with more strength." I say with a smirk, relaxing my body on him, tired from the duel.

Lo'ak whistles, still in character for his referee thing before speaking. "The duel ends with Y/N as the winner!"

As if on queue, the other kids at the area cheered for my win. Meanwhile, I only playfully and cheekily smiled at Neteyam as I dropped my spear beside him.

"Alright, congrats. But baby, g-get off" Neteyam tells me as he patted my waist, gesturing me to get off him quick.

"What's wro-" I say before stopping myself, feeling something hard and bulging below just where I was sitting. "Is that- Are you-?" I ask, not knowing how to in the first place.

"Yes. So please, go, now." He commands again and I followed, frantically getting off him.

Before the both of us could even get awkward about what just occurred, Tsireya called us to go to the group.

Neteyam and I didn't bat each other an eye as we stood up from the ground and joined our friends, the both of us not knowing how to react to what happened.

"Roxto and I know a good hideout somewhere just a little far from here. You guys wanna go?" Aonung asks us.

"We'll meet outside your pod around 8!" Tsireya adds.

Neteyam and I glanced at each other before nodding.

One could never go wrong with late night plans.

This would be fun.