I am not a man to wax poetic. I, when I see something that I favor, will call it either amusing or interesting, but don’t expect me to use flowery language, as if I am trying to bed some country girl. In short, I like when simple things remain simple.

Greeting. I am Gorn Morel, but nowadays everyone calls me embarrassing titles from my years as an active adventurer. It is not like I am not proud of my accomplishments, but “The Mountain Cleaver” sounds a bit silly, no?

“Gorn-san?” said a young man that looks a lot like my old comrade-in-arms. I can already see potential in him, in more areas than one. “Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing. I am fine,” I said with a smile. It is not good for old men like me to think so much about the past. I wave at him and say: “Hmm, certainly, it was a surprising thing for you to ask me to be a referee for this match between your two”

Yes, I will see something good right now, a battle between two promising youngsters. Well, more like one youngster and one desperate woman, but it’s all the same in my eyes.

“Hey, I can feel you thinking something rude, relic!” shouted a certain beast-woman junior of mine. Hmm, seeing her in her old armor again is not so bad. It’s certainly bad that her battle-ready body I helped to train turned so soft.

“I was quite certain that I taught you to show some respect to your elders, brat. It looks to me that this lesson needs to be repeated,” I said with a dry tone to my voice.

For your information, most adventurer guilds across the continent are tight-knit communities of mercenaries who are willing to risk their life for various rewards. They usually require a small entry fee for an access to official quests. It is a convenient system.

I, personally, started my path at this city and once served as a tutor for the adventurers I considered worthy. And yet, most of them were not as good as I expected, some of them even called my training regime positively hellish.

For example, eradicating a monster nest singlehandedly and without a weapon doesn’t look like an impossible job to me. Well, I must admit that this brat was cut above rest in that regards. I can’t say that she did brilliant, but I gave her a solid pass before proceeding with my travel.

Oh, she instantly started to nervously sweat, while swaying her head from side to side. I do have such impression on people.

“Good. Now, let the battle between Alan Muller and Erina Maine commence!”

As I shouted, the sound of metal clashing reverberated through the air. Hmm, certainly, for an ordinary observer, it would be as if those two teleported from their place in an instant, but to me it simply was practiced movement of crossing the distance of five meters with one step. In other words, nothing impressive.

After some time, the fighters finally settled the tempo and main trend of the battle. Just like in dance, there was one to lead and one to follow or one to attack and one to defend. Alan, with his outstanding speed and strength, naturally had an advantage, but so did she…

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In spite of his advantage, the boy couldn’t land a solid hit, while his more experienced opponent parried nearly all of them. That brat, I’m pretty sure she couldn’t see his attacks at this speed, either.

Thus, she predicted where they would land even before the real attack commenced. I never trained her to deal with humans beyond basics, so it must be the testament of the skills she acquired after becoming independent from me. Hmm, not half-bad.

At this point, it was an endurance battle. Alan attacked and Erina parried, blocked and deceived. It was a perfect lesson for an inexperienced kid like him. Somebody ought to teach him precise control, after all.

Ah! He took another direct hit! And my former pupil’s face twisted into a grim one, too. Is she so desperate? Well, it can’t be helped. Right now, the battle’s result was already decided.

“I can’t…” Hmm, he is muttering something under his breath, even though his chest must hurt. Well…

Another hit landed.

… it’s not a good thing to lose your composure at a battle like this.

“I can’t…”

Another two hits landed. Must be painful. I can see bruises forming on his skin. It would be such a pain to explain that to the kind miss later…

“I can’t lose again!” he shouted, as his whole body started to glow brightly.

He made his move. It was a simple, direct attack. Honestly, nothing great. Just your regular swing. It seems, Erina thought so, too. After all, she decided to block and then redirect the hit… which was a grave mistake

Their sword connected and one of them shattered, sending pieces of metal fly in the air. I expected this, but Erina didn’t…

Without any resistance, Alan made yet another hit. Thus, the battle ended…

You see, after all these years, Erina’s body wasn’t in a good condition and the damage must have been quite high. Still, she smiled.

“E-he-he. I did it!”

Certainly, that kid did it. At the last moment, he awakened the power hidden inside him to turn tides at the last moment. It was…

“Bull...!”