I rushed toward the fight. I grabbed Zannen by the collar of his shirt and threw him backward, leaving him in front of Gineviv and Lina. At the same time, I kicked Lut'hner in the chest, but he blocked it with his sword without much effort. Even so, the impact sent him flying several meters backward.
This elf... he's strong.
He barely recovered and was already advancing again.
The movement was precise, extremely technical. A diagonal cut coming from the right, with just enough force to break the defense of any ordinary swordsman.
But I wasn't an ordinary swordsman.
I raised the training sword at the last moment and stopped the blow firmly. The impact reverberated across the field, but I remained steady as a rock. Lut'hner also remained in the same place, but he seemed to be making a considerable effort.
"Not bad," I muttered, without taking my eyes off him. "But have you ever tried cutting stone with silk?"
He didn't answer.
He twisted the blade, pushing me back slightly, and the second attack came, faster and more direct. A thrust to the center, followed by a direct cut.
I blocked the first attack and dodged the second, and this time, I advanced as soon as he withdrew his sword. With my hand, I locked his blade and with a twist of my wrist I tried to unbalance him with a kick to the knee, but he anticipated it.
He dodged and counterattacked with a side slash, which grazed my rib. Part of my shirt was cut. And I could feel the skin tearing slightly underneath.
I took a few steps back and looked at him, surprised. I touched where he had hit me and raised my bloodied fingers, pointing at him with a smile on my face.
"Hm. You got me."
Lut'hner showed no reaction, but there was a new gleam in his brown eyes.
This bastard is fighting for real. He raised his sword and got into position. If you want to dance, then let's dance.
So I took a deep breath and got into my battle stance.
The surroundings seemed to run with static electricity. Some stones on the ground began to lift. Then we both moved, as fast as the blink of an eye. The swords touched steel in an almost choreographed rhythm, in a dance of death.
He wasn't just a luxury bodyguard, he was a real warrior.
With an agile movement, Lut'hner slid under one of my attacks and hit me with the pommel of his sword where he had struck before.
The impact made me take two steps back. But I was soon back on guard.
Lina, on the other side, said something, but the buzzing in my head prevented me from paying attention to anything else.
How long had it been since I had a fight like this? Even with the uncomfortable pain in my head, the hairs on my body stood on end.
Then I couldn't hold back the grin spreading across my lips.
"You really are different from the others, mongrel.
He spat on the ground and pointed his sword at me.
"And you're rusty.
This time, I let out a deep laugh, which made me lose my balance and almost fall to the side. As I recovered, I almost instantly got into position, staring at him with the seriousness that this fight demanded.
"So give me more, you son of a bitch."
We lunged at each other.
This time, I changed my stance and was more aggressive. My blade whistled through the air with my every slight movement, forcing the training sword to groan with each impact with the elf's sword. And apparently, it was enough to make him retreat.
Our blades clashed three, four times—until he made the mistake of trying to spin behind my guard. Bad choice.
I just took a step forward and rammed him with my shoulder.
He lost his balance, so I hit him with the palm of my hand on his chin, which lifted him a few inches off the ground, and kicked him in the middle of the chest. He flew several meters and rolled on the ground, recovering quickly, but his sword slipped.
Before he could reach it, I whispered softly.
"Shadow walk..."
In the blink of an eye, I was at his side, inches before he could grab the sword.
"Fast, but not enough."
I elbowed him in the middle of his back. He fell to his knees, gasping for breath.
In one swift movement, he reached for his sword and it flew towards me. With a twist, I managed to parry the blow, but he tried to stab me in the back.
However, I summoned my dagger and blocked the blow at the last second.
Then he pushed me back, and I took a few steps backward.
A few heavy seconds passed as the dust from the field settled. The field fell into a deathly silence.
Lut'hner was kneeling, sweating, his face stained with dust and his expression weary.
"You... don't fight like a mercenary."
"That's because I'm not."
I walked toward his sword and kicked it toward him. It fell with a metallic thud in front of him.
I pointed the training sword, slightly crooked, at him and said,
"Get up."
But Lut'hner didn't seem to care about the sword or the fight. His eyes were fixed on me.
"Who, for Eryndell's sake, are you?"
Once again, I took up a fighting stance and prepared to advance on him, even unarmed.
"I am the one who will tear off your head and feed it to the magic beasts."
Before Luth'ner could get into guard position, I lunged at him, ready to cut off his head, but then I felt a gale coming toward me. In seconds, I conjured the sealed sword and blocked it.
I backed up several meters.
I looked around, searching for where the attack might have come from, but Lurya's voice cut through the silence.
"Enough!"
I turned toward her. She had her hands raised, and a green aura emanated from her.
No magic conductor... so she's a nonverbal magic user... interesting.
She lowered her arms and crossed them, looking at me with a certain expression of... surprise?
"You're not as simple as they make you out to be, Mr. Duncan."
I pointed the training sword, which was cracked and dented in several places, at Lurya.
"And you elves have this terrible supremacist habit of thinking you're superior."
When she heard the word supremacist, I could see Lurya grimace in disgust, as if she had stepped barefoot in horse dung and it had gotten between her toes.
Lut'hner had already recovered and had his sword in his hands. He walked toward Lurya but did not relax, remaining alert.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Zannen and especially Lina were stunned, and rightly so. A real fight does shock those who have never witnessed one before. Gineviv, on the other hand, looked apprehensive.
"...you're going to kill them..."
I closed my eyes for a brief moment, shifting my attention away from them and back to the elves.
Lurya no longer had that calculating, condescending expression on her face. The fight must have changed something in that damn head of hers.
"That explains a lot..."
I sighed and pulled a cigarette from my pocket, lighting it with my fingers, but without moving from my position.
"Explains what?"
She didn't answer right away. She just glanced at Lut'hner and then at the sealed sword tied to my waist.
"You have the sword... but you only used it at the end."
I just shrugged.
"I don't need it."
She narrowed her eyes.
"But can you use it?"
As the famous saying goes, "Silence speaks louder than ten thousand words," or something like that. Apparently, Lurya understood, because she took a deep breath and took a step closer.
"Why is the sword sealed?"
I raised an eyebrow.
"I bet my balls that you already know."
She clenched her fists, clearly dissatisfied.
"All i know is that the Mad Hero's sword was sealed to prevent its true power from being used again."
I narrowed my eyes at her and let out a sideways laugh. Is that really the story they made up?
"Do you really think that's why?"
Lurya hesitated for a moment. Lut'hner also looked up, curious. So I continued.
"If it were just a problem of power... they would have simply hid the sword. They would have buried it, thrown it into the bottom of the ocean, just wiping it from history."
I took a drag on my cigarette just to add some dramatic pause.
I rolled up my shirt sleeves and raised my right arm, revealing that the same runic bands that covered the sword also covered me.
Lurya frowned. She looked at the sword, then at me, then back at the blade.
"So that means..."
A thunder rumbled in the background. It seemed that rain was approaching again.
"It means that messing with this could bring you more trouble then you imagine.
Her golden eyes sparkled with something new. It was almost possible to see the gears in her head working.
She took a deep breath, then said:
"But I definitely need that sword."
I let out a long sigh and took another drag on the cigarette.
"You really don't know when to give up, do you?"
But deep down, I already knew she wasn't going to give up.
Author's Note: Hey there, dear readers, how are you? I apologize for the delays in updating chapters. I suffered a motorcycle accident and broke my collarbone. My movements are partially limited, preventing me from writing or reducing my writing speed. I thank everyone who is following along, and I will do my best to keep everything updated at a frequency that is satisfactory for you.
~Onii_Chan_San SDG