Chapter 1:
"An apprentice knight may start with nothing but a sword and shield, but with dedication, discipline, and a willingness to learn, they can forge a path to become a formidable defender of the realm." – Imperial Knight Institute Motto
24th Imperial Knight Institute of the Everwinter Kingdom: Grade Nine Training Grounds
In the late afternoon in the training ground, two youths in their teens were fighting at the center of the training ground.
The two youths were fighting with wooden swords, and beside them was an old man in his 40s, closely watching the fight.
At the side of the training ground were countless youths watching the fight. Some were watching in interest, while others were watching in boredom.
The two youths fighting were evenly matched, and as time passed, their exchange grew more intense and fiercer.
One of the youths couldn’t hold on any longer and made a crucial mistake during the intense exchange bouts, and the other youth quickly exploited that mistake. He struck the weak point of the other youth, sending his opponent down on the ground and quickly pointing his wooden sword to the neck of his downed opponent.
“HALT,” the old man in his 40s declared, ending the fight between the two youths. “The winner is William Aigner.”
Every year, the Imperial knight institute creates a tournament for the apprentice knights to determine the top apprentice knight. The old man is the main instructor of the youths in the training ground and is responsible for judging the tournament.
When William heard the instructor’s declaration, he immediately burst into celebration as he enthusiastically rushed toward his friends at the side of the training ground.
The other youth who lost the match clenched his fist tightly as he became dejected but quickly held his emotion down, with no intention of showing his emotions in public. He returned to the corner of the training ground, where his friends consoled him.
“All right, Next up is Deon and Rayner Whitehill!” The instructor shouted
“Finally! Fight! Fight!”
“DEON! DEON! DEON!”
“RAYNER! RAYNER! RAYNER!”
“Fight! Fight!”
All the youths in the training ground cheered, excited to see the match between Deon and Rayner, as both are considered to be the top apprentices of the institute.
Two youths immediately went toward the center of the training ground, making the cheers of the youths become even louder.
“Silence!” the instructor shouted, and the crowd immediately fell silent, but their eyes were still full of excitement as they watched the two youths at the center of the training ground.
No longer paying attention to the crowd, the instructor examined the two youths before him. “You guys know the rules. I want a clean fight. Prepare your stance.”
Rayner has golden hair and blue eyes with chiseled cheekbones, a strong jawline, and a well-trained body, with his whole body giving off a noble aura. He took a deep breath and prepared his fighting stance with a wooden sword in hand and a battle intent in his eyes.
Deon calmly looks at Rayner and prepares his fighting stance, but underneath his calm gaze is a sharp blade, ready for battle. He has black hair, green eyes, and a well-trained body that speaks of determination and resilience.
“Begin!” The instructor shouted
Rayner immediately launched an attack on deon the moment the fight started, but deon easily dodged the attack, seemingly expecting Rayner’s attack, and counter-attacked Rayner with a piercing attack, targeting Rayner’s chest.
Rayner easily parried deon’s attack, throwing deon off balance, and immediately followed it with another attack, but his attack failed to land as deon took a step back the moment his balance was thrown off.
Rayner chased deon while attacking with consecutive strikes, but each strike failed to land as deon easily dodged every attack.
Deon knows that Rayner has stronger strength than him, so he never plans to block any of Rayner’s attacks unless it is necessary.
Deon controlled his breathing while dodging to ensure he didn’t get too exhausted, but because of that, the momentum of the fight went in Rayner’s favor.
Deon continued dodging while looking for a gap in Rayner’s attack but found nothing, so he had no choice but to attack, to disrupt Rayner’s momentum and give himself a chance. He only gave small attacks that won’t punish him if he ever gets caught by Rayner.
Clashes of wooden swords resounded on the training ground. The fight between Rayner and Deon was more intense and fiercer than the previous fight, creating a tense atmosphere in the training ground as everyone watched closely to the fight, not wanting to miss a single moment.
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After countless attacks, Rayner felt his breath becoming heavy but didn’t stop attacking as he didn’t want to give up his initial momentum.
Deon also realized Rayner’s fatigue and saw a few flaws in his attack, but deon didn’t commit a complete counter-attack and waited patiently.
He knew that as a Top apprentice, there was no way that Rayner would immediately have a flaw in his attacks just because he became fatigued. The most likely scenario is that Rayner is baiting deon to attack his “Flaw” to trap him.
However, deon still exploited Rayner’s “Flaw” by creating feint attacks, making Rayner exhaust more stamina and making him keep guessing when he is truly attacking.
Knowing his tactics didn’t work, Rayner immediately stopped faking his “Flaws” but still maintained his consecutive attacks, knowing that if he stopped, he would lose his advantage.
Deon took a step back again as he controlled his breathing once more, but Rayner used that opportunity to lunge himself forward with speed much faster than his normal speed, creating an opening in deon’s defense.
Rayner targeted deon’s head, wanting to end the fight in one blow, but before his land could hit, deon blocked the attack.
For the first time in the match, the two swords properly collided with one another, but Rayner wasn’t demoralized that deon blocked his attack and instead felt ecstatic, as he knew he could easily overpower deon with his strength and with their distance; deon won’t be able to keep dodging.
‘It’s my win, Deon.’ Rayner thought as he tried to overpower deon. ‘I got y—’ Before Rayner could finish his thought, he felt a massive force hitting him in his abdomen.
The unexpected force caught Rayner off guard, pushing him back, and before he could regain his footing, a wooden sword strike landed on Rayner’s shoulder.
“Ughh,” Rayner grunted as he felt the pain course through his shoulder. The pain stunned him in place with no defense to offer
Deon delivered another kick to deon’s abdomen, sending Rayner to the ground, and pointed his wooden sword at Rayner’s face.
Rayner furiously glared at deon while holding his throbbing shoulder. “You tricked me.”
“HALT! The Winner is Deon!” the instructor shouted.
The moment the instructor shouted the winner, the whole training ground cheered in celebrations
“WOO!!”
“Deon! Deon! Deon!”
“Nooo! Rayner”
“Deon! Deon! Deon!”
The instructor looked at deon and smiled. Although it might seem like Rayner had an advantage at the end, he knew that deon planned the whole thing at the end.
While Rayner was busy planning his trap, so did deon, and for his trap: it was the pacing of his breathing.
Rayner was consuming more stamina than deon, and both parties knew about it, so deon fought passively while maintaining his stamina and lured Rayner into thinking that he wanted a stamina fight with him to see who would last longer.
And at the same time, Deon created an “opening” every time he would step back to “control” his breathing to further lure Rayner to releasing his full power and making him think he caught him off-guard.
After that, Deon only needed to give a surprise attack when Rayner least expected it. The plan was a gamble since if his surprise attack didn’t work, then deon might’ve been in trouble.
However, it was a necessary plan since Rayner wouldn’t use all his stamina just to keep his momentum and would eventually stop his consecutive attacks, and by then, who knows what the result would be. Deon wanted to exploit Rayner’s momentum to his advantage.
Deon reached his hand out toward Rayner to help him get up, but seeing the hand, only made Rayner unhappy and dissatisfied.
“Hmph,” Rayner slapped deon’s hand away, stood up from the ground, and spoke: “You win this time, but next time ill defeat you,” not caring about deon’s nice gesture.
Deon could only scratch his head as he saw Rayner walk away.
Rayner belongs to the Whitehill family, a noble family with the title of Baron. Although a Baron is the Lowest level of nobility, it is still a nobility that commoners could only look up to
Especially Deon, who is not only a commoner but also an orphan making his status the lowest even among the commoners
Of course, nobody would bully him since he is a top knight apprentice within the institute, and deon could easily beat any bullies that try.
But he is helpless toward Rayner’s rude attitude since nobility isn’t something a commoner could beat up, and anyone that tries would be sent to prison.
Strictly speaking, Rayner only belongs to the branch family of the Whitehill family and not part of the main family, which is why Rayner is in the imperial knight institute with all the other commoners.
But branch family or not, anyone with a Whitehill surname is protected by the Whitehill family and considered part of their nobility.
So Deon isn’t dumb enough to offend or beat up Rayner just because he was rude since he might lose his apprenticeship.
Deon ignored Rayner and returned to his friends.
One of his friends was loudly cheering at deon’s victory, making deon embarrassed but also quite happy.
The youth that was cheering quite loudly quickly stopped when he saw deon approaching and excitedly high fived deon
Seeing his friend, deon couldn’t but shake his head but still high-fived his friend: “Caleb, Stop cheering so loud. You’ll get in trouble.”
“Haha!, How could I stop? You have 99 consecutive wins!” Caleb said, with his excitement and natural loud voice.
“Deon is right. Do you want the instructor to punish you again?” another youth beside Caleb said
Hearing the other youth’s remark, Caleb couldn’t help but shiver and immediately fell silent, his eyes sneakily going to the instructor.
Seeing Caleb’s action, the other youth laughed mockingly, and deon couldn’t help but laugh. The other youth besides Caleb is Lucien, the childhood friend of deon in the orphanage.
As for Caleb, they met him when Deon and Lucien entered the imperial knight institute, and with Caleb’s extrovert personality, they immediately became friends with him.
Caleb has red hair and blue eyes and is the tallest youth among the grade 9 apprentice knights, and he is also the most cheerful youth who exudes positive energy and radiates noise wherever he goes.
As for Lucien, he has brown hair and brown eyes and is quite a pragmatic person who is practical and realistic in his thinking and approach to life, but it’s also because of that kind of thinking that makes Lucien quite smart as he is a very analytical and logical person.
Deon always jokes that Lucien should become a scholar instead of a knight since he is always at the top regarding written exams.
“All right, Gather up,” The instructor shouted at the hundred youths in the training ground.
All the youths immediately went toward the center of the training ground and formed ten lines, each line consisting of ten youths.
“The Annual Tournament has ended. The top five out of a hundred will have a chance to participate in the upcoming awakening ceremony held in the capital.
Tomorrow morning I will be sharing who those top 5 are, but for now, rest, and I will see you, Trainees, tomorrow.”
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Thought for thoughts:
* Every year, the Imperial Knight Institute has a Tournament that decides which are the top apprentices in their institute