Free Web NovelChapter 199: Chapter 199: Stop Fighting
Chapter 199: Stop Fighting
Serena froze.
Then she laughed, sharp and cold enough to cut through the night air.
"Bestie?" Her eyes swept over Giselle with open contempt. "Then get out of my way."
She did not even bother giving Giselle more than that. For one short stretch of time, Serena had thought Giselle might have become a real threat. Elias had been with her for days, close enough to sit in her lap in front of half of Westbridge, close enough to let her hold him as if she had any right.
Then Giselle said Bestie.
Serena understood the word. She understood exactly how some men used it, and how some women pretended not to understand.
But a Bestie was not a girlfriend.
A Bestie was not a claim.
And Serena had already had Elias in the ways that mattered to her pride.
So in Serena’s eyes, Giselle became less than a rival in an instant.
She reached for Elias again.
Giselle slapped her hand away.
The sound cracked across the entrance path, bright and vicious. Even Yvonne and Liora heard it from where they stood several paces away.
"Back off," Giselle said.
Serena’s anger did not rise the way it should have. Her expression cooled instead, leaving only mockery behind. She lifted one arm and pointed toward the path, as if dismissing a badly trained junior employee.
"What happens between me and him has nothing to do with you, little brat. The person who needs to move is you."
Giselle did not step back. Her grip around Elias stayed firm, her body turned just enough to shield him. "I told you. I’m his Bestie. His business is my business."
"Fuck your Bestie act." Serena’s smile sharpened. "When he and I were in bed, you didn’t even know..."
"Serena Blackwood!"
Elias’s scream tore out with a sob in it.
Both women stopped.
He lifted his head from Giselle’s arms and turned toward Serena. His face was flushed, wet, and furious, but what hit hardest was not the anger. It was the hurt. The disappointment. The same clean, devastating look Serena remembered from the night he found Liora in the room.
Her heart missed a beat.
The last time Elias looked at her like that, he walked out of the Blackwood residence and did not come back.
Now he was looking at her that way again.
Did that mean he was going to leave her again?
A small cry broke the tension.
Giselle had already moved.
She crossed the distance in a blur and drove her fist into Serena’s face.
Serena had not expected it. Not from Giselle Frost, who had always been cold, proud, distant, and too locked inside her own dignity to dirty her hands in public. The hit landed clean. Serena stumbled back several steps, one hand flying to her cheek as heat bloomed under her skin.
Slowly, she raised her head.
The fire in her eyes was almost bright.
Giselle had already set her stance, ready to press the opening. Elias rushed forward and caught her arm before she could strike again.
"Giselle, don’t." He shook his head hard, lower lip caught between his teeth, eyes pleading. "Please."
To Giselle, it looked like mercy.
To Giselle, it looked like he saw Serena hurt and could not bear it.
Following that small bite of his lip, Serena finally noticed his mouth.
It was swollen.
Too red.
Marked in a way she knew far too well.
Serena had done that to him often enough to recognize it at a glance. Before, that sight had filled her with possession and satisfaction. Now it sent a killing rage through her ribs.
Giselle forced her voice down, though her hands were still shaking. "Someone like her needs to be taught a lesson before she’ll ever..."
She did not finish.
Serena’s fist came at her with a rush of air.
Giselle saw it only in the last instant. She managed to close her mouth before the blow landed, but the force still snapped her head aside and knocked her to the ground.
Elias screamed again and lunged toward her.
A hand caught the back of his collar.
Liora had arrived at the right moment, and she held him easily, keeping him from throwing himself between two furious women.
Elias silently gave her full marks.
Out loud, he struggled like a saint in distress. "Stop it. Both of you, stop!"
Serena looked over, breathing hard, and gave Liora a clipped nod. "Don’t let him come over."
Then she advanced on Giselle.
Serena wanted to follow up while Giselle was down, but Giselle was not a porcelain heiress who shattered when touched. She forced herself through the ringing in her skull, shoved one palm against the ground, and rose before Serena could take advantage.
The next second, they collided.
There was no elegance left.
No icy campus goddess. No flawless CEO. No audience speech, no gala manners, no family names standing between them. Two powerful women who had spent too long smiling through murder finally grabbed each other in the open and fought like they meant to leave bruises.
Yvonne watched from the side without moving.
Liora’s smile deepened.
Elias’s eyes went bright.
Finally.
They were finally fighting.
He could barely contain himself. It had been so long since he had watched such a simple, honest brawl. In some of the worlds before this one, women like them never merely fought. They broke mountains, split oceans, burned spiritual realms, shattered bloodlines, and still came back three Chapters later because some ridiculous resurrection artifact refused to let anyone stay dead.
The memory made Elias sigh inwardly.
"Some things are better left buried," he thought. "Do you have any idea how hard I had to work to die properly in that kind of world?"
[System Theta: Host... are you truly not going to stop them?]
System Theta sounded nervous.
Fair. From a procedural standpoint, this was escalating fast.
Elias answered with perfect innocence. "I am stopping them."
Then he raised his voice, all tremble and panic. "Please, stop fighting!"
Neither woman heard him.
At this point, a bird could have flown between Serena and Giselle and gotten punched on principle.
Serena’s jacket was already twisted at one shoulder. Giselle’s silver hair had come loose across her face. Their movements were fast, hard, and ugly enough to make the nearby path feel too narrow. Heels scraped the pavement. Fabric pulled. Their fists and legs cut through the courtyard light in sharp, dangerous lines.
Elias watched with open fascination.
They really did have absurdly good bodies.
Serena’s black stockings caught the light every time she shifted her weight. Giselle’s jeans hugged the clean line of her legs when she pivoted in for another strike. There was power in both of them, different kinds, both wasted on trying to kill each other when those legs had so many better uses.
Elias filed that thought away for later. freёwebnovel.com
[System Theta: ...]
After a while, though, the rhythm changed.
The fight stopped being funny.
Serena was angry enough to forget defense. Giselle had the frightening focus of someone who had finally found an outlet for every humiliation she had swallowed. The next hit might break something important. A fall in the wrong direction could turn this into a problem even Elias could not laugh off.
His mission flashed cold and practical through the heat of the scene.
If one of them got seriously hurt, the fallout would be ugly. If one of them died, his retirement route would be dragged straight into a swamp.
This time, when Elias shouted, it was real.
"Stop it!"
He jerked hard against Liora’s hold. She was already preparing to let him go.
Then Serena, even mid-fight, caught the movement from the corner of her eye.
"Don’t let him near us!" she snapped.
Elias nearly felt touched.
Serena Blackwood, truly a woman among women.
Even battered and furious, she was still protecting the stage for him.
But the glance cost her.
Giselle seized the opening and drove her fist hard into Serena’s chest.
Serena staggered.
Her body folded around the impact. She tried to keep her feet, pride dragging her upright even when balance failed, but one knee struck the ground.
Elias’s eyes widened for real.
Giselle.
How could she hit there?
What was he supposed to use as a pillow later if she broke it?
The timing was right.
Elias lowered his head slightly and said to Liora, "Let go."
Liora released him.
He ran straight to Serena.
"Serena!"
He dropped in front of her, and the first thing he did was check where Giselle had hit. His hands hovered, then pressed lightly, quick and anxious. The shape was intact. Nothing seemed ruined.
Only then did he breathe again.
Then he started crying.
Serena’s vision swam at the edges. The taste of blood filled her mouth. She had lost focus too many times, and Giselle had punished every opening. Her hair was disordered, her suit wrinkled, one side of her black stockings torn enough to show scraped skin beneath. Blood marked the corner of her mouth.
She drew one slow breath and forced herself back into control.
When her sight cleared, Elias was holding her.
He clung to her tightly, head lowered, sobbing so hard he could barely catch air.
