Blade and Joule helped me walk towards the training grounds, and as we arrived, we were greeted with the sight of a huge battle. Mounds of gray dust were piled up everywhere, what was once a field where students would practice had been turned into a miniature battlefield. All the grass and greenery that once flourished throughout had become nothing more than black ash sprinkled with the dust and bones of the vanquished creatures.

"Something’s not right?" Sigil spoke to us in a slightly more serious tone.

"What is it?" I asked.

"The battle should’ve ended by now. You kids stay here. I’m gonna go take a closer look," he said to us in a hurry before rushing towards the battlefield.

"That’s strange." Blade said to us, "Look at the Grewk the captain’s fighting."

"It’s...golden…" I said to myself.

As we headed down the cliff to where the battle was taking place, we overhead Sigil and the captain speaking to one another.

"Don’t tell me you’re getting rusty on me, Strek!" Sigil shouted, "My retirement better not have been for nothing!" He let out a loud cackle.

Captain Strek was injured, and it seemed like this Grewk was more powerful than the one we had fought before.

"I wouldn’t underestimate this one if I were you." The captain said to him, "It’s different from the others.”

"I managed to take the rest of them out, but this one has been giving me some trouble." the captain had said to him.

It was incredible—the resilience of these two men.

"Golden huh?" Sigil responded, "Well, that’s a new one. These bastards come in all sorts of colors."

"By all means, take him on yourself," the captain responded as he sheathed his sword.

Sigil started to stretch. "Very well then, I’ve been meaning to take this sucker out for a test drive." Sigil cocked his arm back and threw his hammer towards the Grewk.

The hammer was caught.

"Stop this futile resistance." The Grewk spoke out, "I demand to see your leader at once!"

"What the hell?" Sigil reacted.

"Seems this one has the ability to speak," the captain spoke out.

"You want to see the king?" Sigil asked, "Don’t be ridiculous." He mocked the Grewk.

The air around him became thicker, and the ground below him shook. Sigil was starting to get serious. Even from this distance, we could all feel the pressure he exerted.

Pressure is a fancy term we Neptarians use to measure a person’s combat ability. The stronger an individual is, the more energy you can feel being exerted from their bodies, that is what we call pressure.

Sigil instantly charged towards the Grewk, throwing a wild punch. The ground below him cracked, and the Grewk was sent flying backward. For a seemingly short old man, he sure was powerful.

The Grewk stood up, placed its sword out in front of himself, and remained silent.

"What? Was that too much?" Sigil berated him.

"Valiant effort, but it's all for naught." the Grewk mocked him.

"You’re really starting to get on my nerves." Sigil looked like he was starting to get ticked off.

"Blade, Prince," Joule called out to us, "The rest of the group is over there."

Trock, Marz, and Riza were near the bottom of the hill we were at.

"We should go meet up with them." Joule said to us.

"Holy shit!" Riza shouted, "How badly were the two of you beaten?" she asked us.

We were both pretty battered up; I was still bleeding, and Blade's armor was in really bad shape.

"We probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Sigil." I responded.

"Must’ve really been something for the two of you to come back in this sorry state." Marz asked me.

"Y-yeah…"

"Where the hell did these things even come from?" Trock asked.

"I’m not sure, I just hope none got into the inner city." I replied.

"That one was probably just a scout; I wouldn’t worry too much about it." Blade had interjected.

"Well if that was all of them, then what’s stopping us from going down there and backing them up?" Trock remarked.

"Calm the hell down, the captain told us to stay back." Riza spoke out

"Either way, we’d probably just slow them down." Marz noted. “The captain is at an SS-rank, we’d just get in their way.”

Marz was right, there were several levels above even the elusive S-rank we were all aiming for, they scaled all the way up to SS, SSS, and finally Elite Level and out of those only the highest of Elite Level warriors were even considered to take up the position of a Royal Knight.

"Gahh, this is so frustrating!" Trock shouted.

As the battle continued, the Grewk began to counter-attack.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"I guess you do have a backbone." Sigil continued to mock the Grewk.

"Hold your tongue." The Grewk retaliated as he landed a clean strike across Sigil's face, knocking him backwards slightly.

As soon as he regained his balance, he once again let out his loud laughter. "If that’s really all you’ve got, you won’t even last a few seconds against the old man." Sigil said to the Grewk as he wiped the blood off his face, "Let me give you a word of advice before you go throwing your life away on a fight you can’t possibly hope to win."

The Grewk reluctantly listened.

"In all my years, I have never been able to defeat that old man in a fight." Sigil said to the Grewk, "Hell! I can even count the number of times I’ve even landed hit him with a single hand. So what makes you think you’ll even hold a candle to him? Hell! I mean look, you’re struggling to even put me down!" Sigil said to the Grewk "There's a reason he's the king. Not because of some stupid bloodline or inheritance. He’s earned his place at the top!" he shouted.

"Well now, I’m honored you feel that way, Sigil." My grandfather had appeared out of nowhere.

"Sir!" the captain shouted and saluted my grandfather.

Sigil began to laugh.

"What? Is this a bad time? Should I give you two a few more minutes?" My grandfather jokingly remarked.

"Always so eager to fight, never could help yourself. Could you?" Sigil mocked. "Well, here you go. The single strongest being in the cosmos." He said to the Grewk

"In the cosmos?" I said to myself, "I knew he was strong, but that’s just absurd."

"I’m sure it’s just a figure of speech." Blade responded

"You don’t even know your own grandfather’s true strength?" Riza asked me

"To be honest, I’ve never even seen him fight." I laughed

"Rumor has it, he stands above every other world leader in terms of both strength and wisdom." Marz said to me. “As far as we know he could be one of the ten legends.”

The Ten Legends? I thought to myself.

The Ten Legends is a title given to ten of the strongest individuals in recorded history. Though, not much was really known about them and to be perfectly honest the general consensus was that many don’t believe that such people could even exist.

“Yeah… he’s gotta be at least at a royal knight level,” Trock questioned.

Marz scoffed in response, “You fool, the king is far above that. These rankings of ours don’t apply to him.”

"Now! It’s time to stretch these old bones out for once," my grandfather said to the Grewk as now he was beginning to stretch.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you; he just landed a lucky shot." Sigil laughed.

The Grewk just stayed silent as it turned to look at his sword.

"What’s it doing?" Blade asked.

The Grewk let out a huge screech before stabbing itself in the chest.

"Maybe it chose to give up." Trock responded, "Hell, I know I would."

"Don’t be an idiot; you can clearly feel its power increasing." Marz pointed out

The Grewk’s sword had become blood red, and many of the spikes around its body would emit a faint glow.

"This is the end for you!" the Grewk shouted as he lunged toward my grandfather while he just stood in place.

"This is very interesting indeed." My grandfather gave a slight chuckle as he caught the Grewk’s sword with his bare hand, "Trading sanity for more strength? Doesn’t seem like the smartest idea to me," he said as he continued to stroke his beard.

The Grewk continued to try and attack my grandfather, but he couldn’t manage to land even a single strike. He was now in a state of pure rage, unable to control his actions. He was swinging wildly with no regard for anything around him, destroying many trees and boulders around him. My grandfather placed his palm forward and sent the Grewk tumbling towards the ground with what could only be described as some sort of invisible force.

"Attacking recklessly, I see," he said to the Grewk "You’ve let your anger consume you."

"Don’t mock me!" the Grewk let out a loud screech.

"Well, this has been fun. I thought you could give me at least a bit of a challenge, but I’m afraid I have a lot of work I must get to. I think it’s about time we end this little scuffle of ours, what do you say?" my grandfather said to him as he once again caught the sword, this time snapping it in half.

He took one step forward, and the Grewk instantly collapsed to the ground along with Sigil and the captain.

"What was that?" I asked.

And before I could even gather my thoughts, our group was hit by a huge wave of pressure, and all of the trees around us began to violently shake; our bodies were unable to move. The amount of energy he exerted was unlike anything we had ever witnessed.

As short as it may have been, the power exerted by my grandfather had left us all paralyzed and in shock; the group had been separated; parts of the ground below us had been cracked; and some trees had even been uprooted.

My grandfather then turned around and smiled at us as if nothing had happened.

"Everything is alright; you may all come down here now," he spoke out to us.

We all carefully scaled the large hill down towards the training grounds in shock. Our heads were spinning, and our hands were trembling.

As Sigil and the captain both stood up..

"You’ve still got it, old man." Sigil remarked. "But, couldn’t you have gone just a bit easier?" he cackled.

"What just happened?" I asked my grandfather.

"I just simply released a bit of my power, that's all," he let out a playful scoff. "I find it very convenient for dealing with any unwanted guests."

"A BIT!?" I shouted, "You nearly killed us!"

"Oh, you exaggerate." He laughed it off as he turned to look at the rest of the group. "I’d like to commend you all for protecting the kingdom’s citizens in this time of crisis," he began to praise us. "And I would also like to reward you all for your efforts, especially the two that managed to hold back a white coat in battle," he looked over at Blade and me.

"A white coat?" I asked.

"Grewks are creatures that come in many forms; the one that you and Blade fought off was called a white coat; it’s about as strong as an S-ranked warrior," he explained to us.

"An S-rank huh? So what level was that gold one at?" I asked

"You know… At a certain point in life, it becomes kind of hard to tell," he laughed it off.

Never pegged him for a show-off

"Either way, you have all done a good job here. You all deserve a few days off after this hard-fought battle. I will personally arrange a reward as a thank you for your efforts here today."

"THANK YOU, SIR!!" Except for me, the entire class shouted and saluted my grandfather before going their separate ways.

"Everyone really respects you, don’t they?" I asked my grandfather, as everyone had left.

"It’s funny, really, this admiration of theirs... It's so deep, to the point where I can’t even hold a normal conversation anymore." He said to me.

"I get that a lot too; people usually don’t think much of me until they find out I’m the prince. Their entire personality changes when they're around me." We both laughed.

"It’s simply one of the many downsides we must live with," he said to me.

"You mentioned a reward earlier; what did you have in mind?" I asked him.

"I want to give a few individual lessons to each of you," he had said to me.

"Are you serious!?" I shouted.

"I suggest you prepare yourself. Your training starts tomorrow, bright and early." He said to me with a menacing smirk on his face.

"I got beaten to near death just mere moments ago, and this is how I’m treated? And didn't you tell us to take a few days off?"

“Yes, I did. I told them to take a few days off.”

“Then what about me?!”

"Think of this as a sort of punishment."

"For what!?"

"For the wall," he said to me.

"Oh, I…uhh…" I had completely forgotten.