Dance of the Gods

With a skip in her step Veronica walked through the Court District. The people were very rude compared to the other districts, but there were still a few diamond in the rough.

She walked passed a classful of children who seemed to be leaving a museum about some boring subject Veronica didn't care about.

When she walked past them each girl looked at her with awe and all of the boys stumbled in their steps. It was comforting to know that not everyone was a complete ass in the rich part of the district.

Strangely enough much less people acted like they were above her. She had no idea why, but maybe something changed when she ascended, and when she walked past a shop's display Veronica instantly saw the differences in her new reflection.

In the morning she didn't look at herself in the mirror, so she couldn't have known her new look.

The imperfections on her face disappeared leaving her face much more beautiful. Her eyes looked to be nearly glowing pinkly, and her hair looked to be an even more lustrous light brown.

The biggest change wasn't in her looks, but her stance. She looked confident and proud, like one of those rich people she dislikes. Her every step was steady and perfectly placed, like a true noblewoman.

Looking through these changes a small smile appeared on her reflections face, just like on her real self's. With her chin held high she began walking again.

The people continued to look at her with either awe or some not very nice emotions. She did spot a lot of man and even a few woman look at her backside when she passed them by.

The ritual didn't exactly increase her beauty and body proportions, it just made everything more in order... It brought her closer to her perfect self!

With a small smile on her face Veronica moved towards the Court Square. There was no particular reason she wanted to see the protests, but she was already nearby, so why not?

After walking for a while she reached the main street, then she turned right and headed straight towards the square.

She heard the sounds a lot sooner, than she saw the large crowd. The size grew by a lot since last time she saw them two days ago. Back than there were maybe a few dozen protesters, but now there were several hundred with police everywhere.

By the looks of it the protests became violent more often and it didn't take long for her to spot a few Lawbringers hiding all around the crowd too. Now that she knew what to look for, they were ridiculously easy to find.

There were two man in large coats hiding in an alley, they spoke and discretely pointed at a few individuals within the crowd. They were probably picking out the most impulsive and angry people, the ones who could cause trouble.

In another alley there were two more people doing something similar, but instead of pointing they seemed to divine the people that looked suspicious.

Veronica didn't know every kinds of divination, but since she read about what to look for just yesterday, it was fairly easy to spot. Also the Cultivator didn't even try to hide the potted plant he was holding and the other, a really beautiful woman pulled out a pocket mirror every few minutes, so she was either from the Sinner path or really narcissistic.

It was a strange and hilarious sight, but the next pair was even funnier. One of them was constantly looking at the clouds, he was probably using Weather Divination. The other was just played with cards on the ground.

'Do theses people have any intelligence? It is so obvious that they are ascended, it's just ridiculous!'

After she laughed a bit at the weirdness of the situation she turned around and began exploring the side streets. She had no particular destination, just a burning curiosity to explore.

She would've never expected that there would be any kind of danger in a place like the Court District, which was the richest and most well maintained part of the whole of Hammon.

...

In an alley four men who looked like thugs, were constantly looking around trying to find a target to rob. All of them had something on their faces which hid their real identity. It also gave them a more menacing aura.

"What about him?" Asked the tallest of the four, his voice was raspy and outright evil sounding. A person behind him was a bit on the fatter side, but he had huge arms too which somewhat compensated on his bodily proportions.

"Nah, he is just actin' rich. Look at that coat! It is cheap as fuck!" His voice sounded more confident and haughty, like a leader of sorts.

"But, Boss... There are nobody walkin' this street no more... Why don' we just jump him and head to someplace elsewhere?" The third one's voice sounded just outright scared and tiny compared to the other two. The 'Boss' just hit him on the nose as an answer to his dumb question.

"Of course there are few folk walkin' through this street! That's why I choose it you fuckin' idiot!" The fourth person grunted his agreement without saying a word. Suddenly the first spoke again.

"That woman looks good, she must 've some money on 'er!" The person named 'Boss' looked towards said person and his breath got caught in his throat for a second.

Along the small street a beautiful woman walked. Her hair was a magnificent light brown and her every move brought the eye to her perfect form, but what really caught interest were those jewel-like pink eyes.

She was currently staring at a pocket watch which was the same color as her eyes.

"Okay, be ready!" Said 'Boss' and with that all of them became serious.

When the woman was about to walk past the four of them came out of the side alley and surrounded her. She stopped dead in her steps and looked at each of them with a raised eyebrow.

The alley was just wide enough for three of the thugs to stand abreast, which gave the woman no opportunity to get away. It wasn't like she could run or move well in high heels anyway!

Behind his mask the 'Boss' was smiling, but before he could say anything the woman spoke in a much more confident tone that she was supposed to.

"Do you four need something? I have places to be!" It took a few seconds for the thugs to recover and understand what she was saying, but even then it surprised them very much. This woman was either a really good actor, or an awfully dumb person!

"We... *cough* We just require all your money, then we will be out of your hair." Said 'Boss' with a cruel smile, which was of course not visible to the woman.

The beauty just shook her head and mumbled something like, "This district is full of scammers..." Then she actually tried to walk away from them.

The silent one reacted quickly and went to grab the woman's hand. The move was perfect, fast and calculated, but even then the woman's wrist did even touch his hand. It moved with impossible and unexpected quickness.

The woman's step suddenly stopped and she turned around with an excited and scary smile. She made a head curl and a few wrist curls, then spoke with a grin on her face.

"You know, I actually wanted to leave you to your robbing business, but I do need some training against actual opponents! Good job, you just acquired a new legitimate work as my punching bags!... Damn, that sounded way too cheesy... Just forget my last sentence and try to attack me!"

The four thugs looked to one another, all of them were very confused about what to do now, but eventually the 'Boss' just shrugged and did as the woman ordered.

All of them thought that she was just insane or something, but soon they realized that they mistook confidence for insanity.

The 'Boss' moved to deliver a very strong punch into the woman's stomach, but she moved like a ballerina and with an impossible bend of her knees and spine, the attack didn't even came close to touching her.

While he was still bewildered about his punch missing by a huge margin, the woman slapped his face so hard that he nearly hit the far wall of the alley.

The other three stared at this display with wide eyes and open mouths. The woman didn't even look back at the 'Boss' and just walked towards the other three.

They were a bit scared, but attacked all the same. The tall one tried to kick the woman's legs out and the silent one punched towards her head. This combination was basically impossible to dodge... that's what they thought anyway.

The woman hopped of the ground and turned her body horizontal midair. The kick went past below her and the punch went wide above her, but the most bewildering part was that her high heeled foot kicked the dumb one straight in the face, knocking him out cold.

In the next second the woman landed on her high heeled feet with ease and a satisfied smile. She seemed to enjoy this exchange very much, unlike the three of them who were still standing.

"I'm really loving this! Could all of you try to hit me at the same time? I want to try something!" While she spoke in a joyful tone, the three of them were already attacking.

This time the 'Boss' was trying to grab her midsection, while the tall one was making a punch towards her left shoulder and the silent one was about to deliver a devastating kick to her right side.

There was literally no way to dodge all of these attacks. Jumping wouldn't help, moving out of the way wouldn't help, even defending wouldn't help at all. It should've been perfect, but they hadn't anticipated one direction that was still available for her.

Before any of the attacks could connect she went into a perfect side split, with each of her legs right between two of the thugs' legs. Using her hand she pushed her body over into a handstand with her legs still in a split position.

They were just high enough that when she tried to close them with a lot of force the two thugs got hit in their family jewels so hard that they began coughing on the ground.

Before the last one could react to what exactly happened, Veronica was already standing in front of him. With a simple right jab she knocked him out without any ceremony.

Quickly while the two who weren't unconscious were still suffering, she stepped to each and delivered a well placed kick to their heads. When they were all knocked out, she spent the next few minutes getting the dirt off of her dress.

After she found herself clean enough, she stepped to each of the thieves and took all of their money, but after getting the last of the men's wallet she sighed in disappointment.

"You four are suck at you job! Did you really only got 30 gelt in the richest part of the city?!... At least you were pretty good punching bags, so thank you for your service!" She smiled at them, then grabbed the sides of her dress and while going down from her knee, she lifted her skirt a bit.

Doing this gesture was much more refined now than when she done it at the inn on her first day. From her dance knowledge she also learnt how to do curtsies like this since they were part of many different dances.

After the gesture she giggled a bit, then done a few other things and went on her way back home.

Not long after Veronica left the alley a few police officers arrived with their revolvers already drawn. One of the previous victims already reported the robbery, so the police came to arrest all the thieves.

What they didn't expect is to find all four of them knocked out and tied together near the alley's wall. Someone used their coats to tie all of their hands together, then left them there as a strange present of sorts.

The officers looked to one another with confusion, then just shrugged and took the criminals in. They didn't question the situation much, since whoever knocked the four of them out just made their jobs a lot easier!