I had to wait for a hour and a half until the servant girl came to get me for my next fight. The man that stood in the room waiting for us this time was one the ones I had noted in the waiting room. He was a small thin man, his build speaking of speak and agility. His skin was a tanned bronze from spending a lot of time outside and looked good with the his black hair and, trimmed beard. His clothes were simple and clearly easy to move in.
The thing that truly drew my attention though was the katana, a weapon from the eastern side of this continent, that was slung at his side. I don’t have the chance to see many eastern swords in this area of the continent, but from what I could tell, it was a beautiful weapon and of the same caliber of quality as my own twin blades, which was very impressive. The man eyes were likewise, focused on the hilts of my blades that were sticking up over my shoulders, the only part of my swords he could see at this angle.
“Those blades are of an incredible quality, what forge master crafted them?”
I smiled proudly and pointed at myself. As I had early on in life known that I wanted to become the best swordswoman I could become, at the age of seven, I decided to take up blacksmithing in order to fully understand the weapons I would be wielding. Through a full three years of learning with an excellent master teaching me the art at my uncle’s castle and a full decade of hard work polishing my skills between training, I had succeeded in gaining a mastery level in the craft a few years before I started raising my little sister Melody. The man stared at me with wide eyes.
“You mean you made them? You’re a master smith!?”
I puffed my chest out proudly and nodded happily. The man’s eyes started to sparkle and he stepped forward and grabbed my right hand, checking for calluses.
“Yes, these hands know the weight of a hammer well, I’m a master blacksmith as well, after this tournament, we should exchange pointers!”
I nodded in agreement, I was always looking for things to make my skills even better and from the look of his sword, it looked like I could learn a few good things. The servant girl gave a small cough and we both turned guiltily towards her and followed her out in the arena.
I blinked in surprise when I saw the arena, the sandy basin had sunk down into the earth several meters and a thick rope net was strung up over it. The servant girl motioned for us to walk out onto the net and told us that the announcer would explain the changes in the arena and then she promptly left us there. The man turned to me and shrugged.
“I guess we do what she says...”
He grinned at me with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
“Let’s have a good fight!”
I winked at him, slightly surprised at how friendly we had both become already, and placed my boot onto one of the ropes, which were as thick as my arm, that made up the net, testing it out for give and steadiness. The rope sunk slightly under my weight, but it wasn’t too bad. I confidently stepped fully onto the rope and then with light steps moved confidently to the center of the arena. My opponent did the same, only after removing his shoes, but with the same ease I had. Balance was extremely essential for any proper swordsman. As soon as we both reached the center of the net, the announcer began to do his thing.
“Ah, yes! Our first battle for the second round of the tournament, Miss Delta Aquis verses Angus Bradach! I’m sure you’re all wondering about the change in set up, so allow me to explain~
Each stage of the individual fights for this tournament will have a different challenge, the first stage was simply to see how fighters work in normal situations, basically, their optimum location to unleash their ability.
The other rounds will not be so kind, they will test our fighters ability to competently fight in difficult situations, there are many incidences of assassination attempts on past kings that had succeeded because they were done in very strange ways and situations.
Thus, a few centuries ago, the king changed the policy for the tournaments to test the fighter's ability to fight in such situations and hopefully, decrease the success of those kinds of assassination attempts. And so far, it has shone success! Now, enough talking, I know you folks didn’t come here for a history lesson!”
That was our signal to prepared to fight, Angus and I moved several meters away from each other on the net and drew our blades in preparation to fight. The horn sounded, but neither Angus nor I charged forward, instead, we began to circle each other, leaping from rope to rope as we gauged each other's abilities. We darted forward to exchange a few blows, but not a full strength. The crowd was starting to get restless, they didn’t buy tickets for a boring fight, they wanted something flashy and exciting!
I vaguely noted the crowds growIng displeasure but my main focus was on Angus, he was clearly a far better swordsman than the ox guy, and if I wasn’t a bit careful, I might actually end up losing, something that I couldn’t afford to do right now.
Angus suddenly darted forward, clearly starting to get serious. I grinned and threw myself backwards, accurately placing my hands on the rope as I did several backflips, cause the rope to shake at the same, disturbing Angus’s charge enough to force him to stop and crouch down to grab adjacent ropes to his own for balance. He frowned playfully at me.
“Now that wasn’t fair~”
I smirked at him, but my eyes stayed serious, watching for anything that might indicate his next move. Angus stayed crouched for a long moment, then his legs tensed and he sprang forward at a speed twice as fast as before. Hmmm, he must have used the rope’s give to springboard himself forward. I placed my feet onto different ropes and bent my knees slightly, preparing to take his blow head on this time since he was too fast this time to use the same trick. I saw him grin at me and then he vanished from my line of sight.
I frowned in confusion for a moment, then instinctively threw myself forward in a dive forward, letting myself drop thought one of the large gaps in the net and hooking a leg around a rope to stop me from falling completely. I heard a whooshing sound as Angus’s blade passed harmlessly above me. I swung my upper body forward and gripped the rope awkwardly as I still had my swords in hand, and letting my leg slide free of the rope, pulled myself back up on the net so I was crouched on it. Angus had let himself drop through a hole in the net and swung himself forward at high speeds in hope of getting behind me to attack, but I had just managed to dodge.
“Tch! I thought that might actually work….You’re really strong Delta~”
When had we gotten on a first name basis? Well, whatever, I dashed forward quickly toward Angus, it was time to return the favor! Angus began to shift backward but I was too close for him to be able to dodge, a few feet away from him on the rope, I crouched and used the rope to send myself sailing far over Angus’s head. I crossed my blades and slashed outwards with them, sending a ripple of sharp force out that cut the rope Angus was standing on and the two ropes that were adjacent to it. The force of my attack sent my body sailing even further away, and I landed safely on the net as I watched the areas I had cut give way under Angus’s feet.
He cursed and barely managed to grab on to a nearby uncut rope, but he had already lost. I sprang forward on a safe rope and held one of my blades at his throat as he struggled to pull himself up. He stopped and sighed as soon as he felt my blade hovering at his throat.
“I CONCEDE! Man, Delta, I wish I had thought of that, it was a pretty good move….Oh well, I just joined this on a whim so I don’t really care~”
I sheathed my blades and carefully helped him up onto the net, then he sheathed his blade and bowed towards me respectfully.
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“Thanks! It was a good fight!”
I nodded happily and we both walked off the net, angus chatting happily about the fight while I listened and made gestures to add my own points to the conversation. As soon as we stepped off the net, I turned to look back at the net, just in time to see the rope I had cut shimmer and weave itself back together as though it had never felt the touch of my attack. Yep, definitely some kind of renewance spell….I turned back to Angus, who had also turned to look at the net. He looked back at me and waggled his eyebrows mischievously.
“Magic, it never ceases to amaze me~”
I snorted and led the way to the exit of the arena. Angus walked back to the room to me, the exit he had to take was in the same direction, and while we walked he made sure to tell me where he was living in the city and insisted I remember to come visit some time so that we could trade blacksmith tips.
I was a little surprised to hear that he was living in the city as the last time I had come to Serac I hadn’t heard anything about a master smith living there, but he sheepishly admitted that he had only become a master smith a years ago and that before that he hadn’t ever lived in Serac, instead choosing to travel and see different cultures weapons. He was only about thirty years old, it was quite an amazing achievement to reach mastery level at that age but he was embarrassed because he from what he knew, I was only 25, which was an almost unheard of age to acheive smith mastery.
I had actually reached that level at the age of 20, but not many forgers are members of royalty that can get unlimited smithing materials and the best teachers available. I was also extremely mature for my age, at the age of seven, I had already dealt with a lot of social and political strife due to my half-human nature. Even though my father was King, he protect me from everything. All in all, I’m an unaccounted for anomaly in the realm of forgers.
I tried to communicate that I was impressed by his achievement with various gestures, but he only seemed to get more embarrassed….maybe I wasn’t communicating it properly? We reached the entrance to the victors rooms and Angus hurried away, only calling back to remind me to come visit him some time… he sure was in a hurry to get away….
I shrugged and headed to my room, it looked untouched except for the fact that the little food I had eaten had been replenished. I grabbed another roll of bread, then tore it in half and sandwiched a few thick slices of smoked turkey and cheese between the two halves of the roll. I took a big bite and sighed happily as the rich flavors rolled across my tongue. It’d probably be another hour or so until I had my next fight so I could afford to eat some food to replenish my energy.I flopped onto my cot, still munching on my sandwich, and stared at the stone ceiling, preparing myself for another long wait.
King of Serac’s Point of View:
Delta’s and Angus’s fight had been truly amusing, I could tell they were fighting seriously, yet at the same time, it seemed like they were just playing around. I couldn’t help but grin as the two competitors walk off the net side by side, Angus talking cheerfully to Delta as though he hadn’t just lost to her. Theron chuckled beside me.
“Those two sure are strange ones, the servant girl in charge of escorting them to the arena reported that apparently the both of them have reached the master level in forging...”
I could feel my eyes bug out slightly as I turned to stare at Theron. According to his information, Angus was only thirty years old, which was pretty rare for a blacksmith, but not completely unheard of, but Delta was only twenty-five!!!! I slumped back into my throne and slid a hand down my face.
“Haaaa, it seems there’s a lot of strange people showing up in this tournament…..”
Theron nudged me and nodded towards the arena, a slightly worried expression on his face.
“Speaking of strange people, Master Gallahan who we invited is about to fight that Lonan fellow, I hope he doesn't lose by some strange chance, that Lonan guy gives me a bad feeling for some reason….”
I looked down at the arena to see Gallahan stride out onto the net confidently, the strange dark clothed Lonan with yellowish green skin following after him. I shrugged and looked back at Theron.
“Eh, Gallahan is the best swordsman of his generation, there’s no way that sickly looking fellow Lohan can win...”
Theron still looked a bit uncertain but he nodded and turned his attention to the arena. The announcer introduced Gallahan and Lohan to the crowd and then the fight began. It started off as I had expected, Gallahan immediately started pressing Lohan, his sword flashing as he danced across the net, making Lohan stumble back, his balance uncertain on the net. Then, Gallahan suddenly slowed his attack, his moves becoming rather sluggish. I frowned leaning forward, could he be trying to bait Lohan into attacking? Lohan charged forward and slammed the hilt of his simple short sword into Gallahan’s stomach, I watched in worry as Lohan continued to pound Gallahan without worry, Gallahan making hardly any attempt to defend himself. I turned to Theron, already knowing the outcome of the fight.
“I want Gallahan to be tested for poison after Lohan wins this fight, also I want Lohan to be questioned! Put our best guys on finding anything out about Lohan that they can.”
Theron nodded.
“If Lohan poisoned Gallahan, that would be against the rules and he would be disqualified...I knew that guy was a nasty worm...but why would he have made it so obvious?”
The bloody and beaten, but still breathing form of Gallahan was soon leaving the arena on a hovering stretcher, anxious healers buzzing around him. I watched the next few fights, anger simmering in the pit of my stomach. Finally, the harried head of the kingdoms information gathering network walked quickly into the balcony and handed a small packet of papers to Theron, bobbed a bow to me, and ducked back into the hallway, this was clearly a busy day for him…. Theron walked slowly back to me, reading quickly through the small pile of papers. When he finished, he handed them to me.
“He wasn’t poisoned, Lohan said he successfully hit Gallahan with a mind dazing spell, but our agents report that Gallahan should have a special artifact to defend against those types of attacks….though our agents weren't able to find any evidence to support this, they believe that Lohan is in possession of a forbidden artifact that directly attacks the soul.”
I scanned through the papers, confirming Theron’s words. A chill ran through me. Forbidden artifacts were created in ancient through a myriad of dark magic rituals and massive blood sacrifices, luckily knowledge of the art had been eradicated, but artifacts like these still popped up occasionally...
“Theron…...I have some new orders for you to relay….”
Delta’s Point of View:
Just as I had expected, an hour later there was a now familiar knock on the door. I moved quickly off the cot and opened the door. The servant girl stood calmly in front of me as usual and I looked out into the room, no one else was standing in the room. The servant girl tugged on the sleeve of my jacket, pulling me out of my room, a nervous look on her usually professionally stern face.
“I have orders to tell you that you must do whatever you can to defeat you next opponent, he is extremely strong, but the king suspects he is using a forbidden artifact to attack his opponents, which is against the mandates of the tournament, unfortunately without proper evidence, the man cannot be disqualified from the tournament. From what has been seen in the tournament, you’re the only one who has a chance at defeating him! In order to help with that, the king will be lending you this, it’s his own personal soul protecting artifact!”