by TurtleMe
“You’re still a crybaby, aren’t you?” he joked, removing the hand he had on my arm to wipe a stray tear that refused to drop to the ground.
“Shuddup,” I replied, my voice coming out nasally.
Letting out a soft chuckle, he motioned with his head to follow him. “Come on. Your friends must be waiting.”
I gave him a nod, picking up Sylvie, who had been asleep on the ground. As we walked, my gaze constantly shifted between the sleeping Sylvie to Art.
“You got taller,” I remarked, my eyes now focused on Sylvie.
“Sorry I can’t say the same for you,” Art teased, weariness evident in his eyes as he let out a faint smile.
“I’m tall enough.” I stuck out my tongue.
Spotting Caria and Stannard talking around our fire, we picked up our pace as I tried my best to hide all signs that I had been crying.
After introducing Art to the both of them, we situated ourselves around the fire when Darvus suddenly came stomping out with a determined expression.
“Arthur Leywin. I, Darvus Clarell, fourth son of the Clarell House, formally challenge you to a duel!” he announced without any particular anger or spite; instead, he looked resolute.
“What?” the rest of us, aside from Art, exclaimed in unison.
My gaze immediately landed on Art to see how he would react. With him being physically and mentally drained from these past few hours, I didn’t know how he would take such a confrontation. However, to my relief, I spotted an amused expression on my childhood friend.
“Nice to meet you, Darvus Clarell, fourth son of the Clarell House. May I ask for the reason of this duel?” Art replied without getting up.
Caria immediately got up and held back Darvus. “D-Don’t mind him, Mr. Leywin—”
“Please, just call me Arthur.”
“—Arthur,” she amended. “He’s just being foolish.”
“I’m fine, Caria. I’m not mad or anything.” Darvus shook his childhood friend away before facing Art again. It was a weird sight-seeing Darvus speak to Art in such a formal and respectful manner since Darvus was a few years older than Art.
“As for my reason,”—Darvus paused—“with all excuses aside—a man’s pride.”
I was utterly baffled by his response, and looking at the stunned expressions on Caria’s and Stannard’s faces, so were the two of them.
However, Art stifled back a laugh as he covered his mouth. His shoulders shook as he tried to hold it in before breaking down into a hearty laugh.
The four of us looked at each other with expressions of even greater confusement as even Darvus looked bewildered. Soldiers, drawn in by the uncontained laughter of Art, gathered around our camp, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend,” Art finally spoke, stifling in his laughter. “After spending what felt like a lifetime with those old coots, I just thought that what you said was quite refreshing.”
“Thank you?” Darvus replied, still trying to figure out whether to be offended or pleased with Art’s remark.
“Sure, as long as lives aren’t at stake, I’m fine with a duel,” Art said with a content smile, getting up from the stump he was sitting on.
As the two guys began making their way toward the southern wall of the cavern, the group of curious soldiers eagerly followed behind them.
“Do you know what this is about?” I asked Caria as the three of us trailed behind the group.
My petite teammate merely let out a sigh as she shook her head. “Something about him feeling insecure because Arthur is younger and supposedly stronger than he is.”
“Not to mention he’s pretty bitter that Arthur is better-looking than him too,” Stannard added, letting out a deep breath as well.
“What? So that’s what he meant by a ‘man’s pride’?” I blurted, dumbstruck.
“Yeah, I know. He’s hit a new low.” Caria nodded, looking at my expression. “I wonder if all men are like that?”
We both turned to Stannard who looked back at us with an unamused raised brow. “On behalf of all men, allow me to say that we aren’t all like that.”
“Maybe not all, but it has to be a majority, right?” Caria asked, making me giggle.
Letting out a defeated sigh, Stannard nodded. “Probably.”
We got to the makeshift dueling grounds just in time to see them about to begin. It seemed like the entire camp had stopped what they were doing to watch the two go at it. I could understand the soldiers being curious about Art’s strength since we had only seen the aftermath of his fight, but I didn’t expect to see Dresh at the front, eagerly waiting in anticipation next to the Twin Horns. The usually impartial Helen, leader of the Twin Horns, was enthusiastically rooting for Art as the rest of her party cheered him on. Soldiers from this expedition who had all seen Darvus in action and knew of his prowess cheered for him with whistles and hoots.
Beside me, Caria let out a groan. “Who am I supposed to root for?”
“Shouldn’t it obviously be to your childhood friend?” I teased, snickering at the sight of Darvus pompously receiving the cheers with his chest puffed out. Sylvie, who was still in my arms, shifted in her sleep from the noisy crowd, taking a quick peek before deciding that her sleep was more important.
“Hey! We don’t always have to choose our childhood friends,” Caria replied, shaking her head at Darvus’s unseemly attitude.
“You kind of do, Caria,” Stannard snorted, turning his gaze toward my arms. “Anyway, I didn’t ask before but it’s been on my mind; what sort of mana beast is Arthur’s bond anyway?”
“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you,” I smirked, focusing on the mock duel ahead.
Art was leisurely standing with his left hand leaning on the pommel of his sword as Darvus began juggling his axes to put on a show for the crowd to see.
“Just before you came, Tess, he was in such a sour mood. Now look at him; God, I swear, he has the emotional stability of a four-year-old,” Caria grumbled.
“Probably even younger,” I chuckled, remembering how mature Art was when he was four years old.
One of the soldiers, a seasoned augmenter, volunteered himself to be the referee and stood between Darvus and Art with his hand held up.
“I’m sure the general consensus is that we’d like to keep this cavern in one piece, so I want you both to keep mana usage strictly to body augmentations. Is that clear?” the soldier asked, taking a glance at Dresh for confirmation.
Getting the approval from the leader of this expedition as well as two consenting nods from Darvus and Art, the soldier swung down his hand. “First to yield or otherwise be incapacitated loses. Begin!”
Chapter 136: As Quickly As He Had Appeared
STANNARD BERWICK’S POV:
At the referee’s signal, the match began.
All traces of pompousness from Darvus disappeared as he carefully circled around Arthur. As our leader’s childhood friend remained standing in the same position, Darvus continued to side-step around him, warily looking for an opening.
Darvus had in his hand two identical axes that differed only in color. These two weapons were precious family heirlooms that had been passed down generation to generation to the strongest practitioner of their Clarell style of axe-wielding. The two axes looked more like misshapen swords with blades melded right above the handle, not near the top. The flat of the blades had strange markings etched into both of them that didn’t match the simple, unadorned handles of the weapons. I knew that Darvus was serious just from the fact that he took these weapons out. I’d only seen this pair of axes once, and that was only because Caria begged him to show us.
Darvus continued to slowly circle Arthur, always keeping a steady position, never crossing over his legs in between steps. Arthur, for some reason, stayed completely still even as Darvus inched behind him.
Sweat beaded down the sides of Darvus’s face as he stopped right behind his opponent’s open back. The only s
ound inside the cavern was the faint rushing of water from the stream as the crowd’s cheering subsided. Everyone stared anxiously at the two contestants, not doubting the reason for Darvus’s hesitation despite his advantageous position.
After another slow sidestep, Darvus lowered his position and launched himself at Art’s back. I couldn’t help but become involuntarily drawn into the battle as Darvus closed the five-meter gap in just two quick steps.
Darvus had both his axes loaded to his right in preparation for what looked like an upward swipe, but as soon as he was about to get in distance, Darvus abruptly veered course. Steering clear of the seemingly still Arthur, Darvus went back to his original distance, his forehead drenched in sweat as his chest heaved in and out for air.
“What was that, Darvus?” a soldier cried out.
“Stop being a wimp!” another voice shouted.
Tessia, Caria and I exchanged glances, unsure of what was going on with Darvus. It hadn’t even passed the two-minute mark since this duel had started, yet he looked to be in worse shape than that one time our team had been locked in a battle for several hours.
It was impossible for Darvus to be this tired after just a few minutes, but it wasn’t the only thing that confused me.
I’d been with Darvus as he mercilessly hacked away at A class mana beasts with cruel efficiency, and beat down adventurers twice his size and in the same class with a content smile on his face, so I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Even from here, I could make out the distinct features of an emotion that I had thought the battle-hungry Darvus lacked: fear.
At the discontent hollers of a few more soldiers, Darvus clicked his tongue before snapping out at the crowd to shut up.
Taking a deep breath, Darvus lowered his center of gravity with renewed fervor in his eyes as he stared attentively at Arthur—who may as well have been a statue at this point.
The edges of my teammate’s two axes glowed amber as he lowered them so that the tips were touching the ground. Darvus stomped his right foot as if he was about to leap toward his opponent, but instead, he stayed rooted as he swiped both of his axes upward in a cross.
Darvus's spell caused a trail of fine grain to follow his two blades before shooting out in a cross-shaped attack
As the crescent of pebbles shot out towards Arthur, I couldn’t help but admire the effectiveness of the spell. While normal grains of sand didn’t strike fear into my heart, at break-neck speeds, they could put dozens of small holes in unsuspecting opponents.
The fine, earthen barrage reached its target almost instantly, but rather than poke holes or even break skin, the pebbles bounced off Tessia’s childhood friend harmlessly, as if a toddler had thrown the sand at him.
At first, I thought Darvus had failed to properly cast the spell, but the remaining spray of grain that hadn’t landed harmlessly on Arthur, dug into the cavern wall behind him with an explosion of consecutive crashes. Luckily, the spray hadn’t hit any of the spectators near it, because the area where Darvus’s spell had hit crumbled a layer of the cavern wall.
Everyone’s gaze shifted back and forth in shock between Arthur, who had received the brunt of the attack with no harm, and the wall where a small cloud of dust had formed from the sheer force of the small cluster of rocks. Everyone in the entire cavern was in a silent display of surprise and awe—everyone except for Darvus. My spoiled friend had a discontent grimace on his face as if he knew that something like that would happen.
Arthur, on the other hand, finally turned around to face his opponent as he casually dusted off his sleeve where Darvus’s spell had bounced off of him—not even his clothes damaged.
With another annoyed click of his tongue, Darvus leaped back as he dug his axes into the ground once more at another attempt to stone his opponent with sand. However, as Darvus swung his priceless weapons, Arthur raised a hand.
Suddenly, the trail of grains that were trailing behind my teammate’s blades all dropped before fully manifesting into a spell. Darvus’s eyes widened and I knew that somehow, his monster of an opponent had cancelled or stopped his spell from forming.
Darvus’s frustration was evident on his face as he bit down hard on his lower lip, his eyebrows furrowed into a scowl. However, as Darvus continued to try and conjure his spells, from here, it simply looked like he was flailing his axes at a ghost in front of him.
“Damn it!” Darvus finally howled, locking gazes with Arthur, whose lips curled up just a tad at the edges. My wild-haired friend finally stopped attempting to attack from afar and moved in. He closed the gap and swiped savagely at the bare-handed Arthur. As his glowing axes created streaks of mana behind them, his opponent easily parried them with the back of his hand.
Darvus struck again—simultaneously this time—hoping to catch his opponent off guard, but Arthur merely dipped the right axe that was aimed at his head, and pivoted and parried the left axe that was aimed at his torso.
My teammate, however, kept his composure as he mixed it up, feinting to his left before veering, his other axe rising to quick-strike to the right. Arthur dodged the attack beautifully, maintaining a steady balance as his body dipped and weaved into a rhythmic trance.
Darvus’s flurry of attacks, mixed with off-timed kicks and elbows, was relentless as the crowd—myself included—silently gawked at the spectacle of one attacked with monstrous speed and control while the other dodged or parried everything perfectly without damage even coming to his loose clothing.
My attention had been solely focused on the two of them for the entirety of the duel, so when Darvus suddenly dropped his axes and fell to his knee, I couldn’t make sense of it.
From here, it looked like my stubborn and prideful friend had simply given up, but by the wide-eyed, stupefied gaze he had toward his opponent, I knew it wasn’t that simple.
On his knees, Darvus raised his left shoulder—as if to swing his arm. However, his arm remained limp, dangling at his side. He then tried to get up. With his legs merely trembling, they gave out, causing Darvus to fall to his back.
The crowd murmured to one another as they exchanged raised brows and similar looks of confusement.
“W-What’s going on? Why can’t I m-move?” Darvus stammered as he remained sprawled on his back.
“You’ll be fine, boy,” a husky voice called out reassuringly. “Right, Arthur?”
The familiar tone that came from behind was filled with power, immediately causing Darvus to fall silent. The rest of us all whipped around at the source of the voice.
I let out a frightened gasp before immediately dropping to my knee.
Dresh’s voice, laced with surprise and apprehension, rang from within the crowd. “We salute you, Commander Virion.”
As he said this, my gaze remained planted to the ground, not daring to look up until otherwise stated.
That was just the kind of figure he was to all of us.
I had read about Virion Eralith in textbooks and documentaries from during the time of the old war between humans and elves. He was king at the time, and from what I had read, an exceptional one. It was ultimately through his leadership and cunning that the human army, despite having an advantage in numbers, was forced to retreat in the end. It was no wonder why the Council, which comprised of the current kings and queens of their respective nations, turned to Commander Virion for guidance in this war.
I had the honor of meeting him once when I was first chosen to be placed in the same team as his granddaughter. At that time, I could only imagine her to be a spoiled, ill-mannered girl that wanted to chase after some lunatic fairytale. But I was wrong. She was stronger, more mature, and more dedicated to the war than I would ever be. If this was the girl that was raised by her grandfather, I could only imagine what kind of beast Commander Virion would be.
As we all remained genuflecting, I kept my ears open as two pairs of footsteps approached.
“He’s right,” Arthur’s voice rang from behind. “You’ll be back to normal soon.”
<
br /> From the brief moment I had, I couldn’t recognize the peculiar-looking man beside Commander Virion. Most of his face was covered underneath a woolen hood, but his clean-shaven face and was sharp, a pair of thin, pursed lips hiding any signs of emotions.
“Arthur! Tessia,” Commander Virion’s rough voice called out once more. “With me.”
Footfalls, from what I assumed to be Arthur, approached me from behind as even Tessia made her way towards her grandfather as well.
After a few moments, our expedition leader told us to rise, the Commander, his companion, Tessia and Arthur all gone.
“What was all that about?” I asked in a hushed voice to Caria.
My friend shook her head. “I have no idea. I’ve never seen Commander Virion out on the field, and even then, coming all this way just for one person?”
“Seriously,” I agreed. “Even the high-ranking leaders back at the Wall rarely get to communicate with Commander Virion directly.”
“Well, it makes sense since his granddaughter was here, right?” Caria inquired.
“I’m not so sure about that,” I murmured before remembering my injured friend. “Caria! Darvus!”
The two of us hurriedly made our way over to our teammate that was still lying on his back. Kneeling beside him, Caria lifted her childhood friend’s head and placed it in her lap. “Darvus, are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah,” he huffed. “I can move my fingers and toes now, at least. What happened? I thought I heard a familiar voice? Who was it?”
“It was Commander Virion!” I answered, rolling up Darvus’s sleeves to take a better look at his condition.
“What?!” he cried, attempting to get up before falling back into Caria’s lap with a groan.
“Stay still, idiot. You’re hurt!” Caria chided. “Anyway, you heard Commander Virion. He said you’ll be okay, and I don’t think Arthur hit you with the intent to cripple you.”
“Thanks.” Darvus rolled his eyes. “Because the one thing a guy wants to hear after getting his ass handed to him is that his opponent wasn’t even trying.”
