Korta had been injured.
Mallory wouldn’t be able to fully heal him before the Supremacy Duels because of his physique but it was nothing fatal.
The duel between Cap Dwarf and Korben had been conducted in secret but he heard the result was a close loss for Cap Dwarf—practically a draw, so he was fighting 2 days from now.
Koawe did Korta’s job and went to get the list of people on the Empire’s side.
According to Christy, their opponents were 2 Patriarchs both of which were Emperor-ranked but their squads were filled with Kings, along with a few direct tribal youngling squads from each of the Benumbed and Vigiot Tribe. It was standard to have prospective future tribe heads put their lives on the line in such a ‘prestigious’ battle.
It was as if the Empire followed their tradition. The 4 inexperienced fighter Generals will be sent as well but their ranks don’t mean anything in this ‘duel’. It was assumed that Ebony wanted to join and they weren’t wrong. He was plucked in with these 4 Generals to challenge the prospective tribe chiefs. There was a good chance it was a few individuals and not a whole squad as they wanted to prove their individual strengths. Athena’s name was there, it seemed like she was also in his group. Other opponents in this group seemed to be a few tamers and finally, a single tribeless that stood out amongst all others.
Cap Dwarf will actually join Koawe and Korben led by Korta to handle all 14 members of both Patriarchs’ squads.
Christy was going to solo both Emperor-ranked warriors and Midnight Shepherd’s entire squad by herself. Actually, it would be a few squads of Shamans but there was not much of a difference to her.
Radiance Envoy together with a few Imperial mages were going to fight as well. They were matched with some Commanders who were their guards. Mallory would be with them with soldiers from Fourth Tide. They might have a team battle for all he knew. As for who their opponents were, it depends. It might be a few other elite squads or perhaps a spellcasting competition with the Shamans.
It was all just a plan. The Trolls might not necessarily get baited to fight the opponents the Frost Elves designated. However, it was highly likely possible to walk up to a Troll and challenge them. The chances a Troll would turn down a direct challenge were immensely low. The only slight problem was that they had to offer their flesh as a losing condition. It made no real difference, the loser died. But this way, the Empire was not allowed to recover a body if there was one.
It was quite a farce but Ebony learned something interesting. The Troll in charge of uniting every tribe for this invasion was present. The most interesting piece of knowledge was that a contract was signed. He didn’t think much of this contract when they mentioned it but Koawe taught him some intriguing things. This contract was signed and observed by a Saint-ranked spirit. Elcra couldn’t support the growth of a Saint-ranked creature but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t come here. Spirits come and go as they please through the spirit realm so they are not affected by how strong or weak a certain world is.
Contractual magic with spirits was done by summoning them and making an offering. With war, it was already put into place long ago that the loser of this Supremacy Duel would pay the price. Usually, it was a simple price of either mana, vitality or some other form of energy. After the Supremacy Duel, any further attacks would be against the contract and the Saint could wipe out the party that crossed any agreements made in the contract. It depends a lot on the details of the contract but apparently, they just reused the same one for over a thousand years.
The particular spirit in question was found by some Elven summoner in the past, it simply found it beneficial and oversaw the duel. No matter which side won or lost, the spirit gained. Sadly, nobody knew what kind of spirit it was or if it was even still a Saint spirit. Ebony didn’t learn much about the spirit. The spirit was also bound by contract to protect the winner if the loser decided to go against the rules. They blindly trusted that the spirit would follow the contract because that was the nature of spirits. The Empire lost a few of these before Navin took the reins, this was the first war after he became King. The Trolls went against the contract and suffered the consequences more than once. Hence, the spirit had some credibility.
In Ebony’s opinion, they should’ve just started off with this duel. But as a beneficiary of the past few months, it was really hard to say if their methods were fundamentally wrong. Those that survived got far stronger while those that weren’t up to par had perished. It was hard to say if they wanted to polish hidden talents more than to gain territory.
No one else from the militia wanted any part of it. They were just lining up to get full treatment from the famed Crown Princess before they went back to their business.
The duels would last until one side submits and no longer has any challengers. Which was to say, it might drag out until the losing side no longer has people wanting to throw their lives. It was even okay to have multiple people challenge one person as long as they agreed to it. Essentially, to force one side to accept that they are inferior in power. Of course, it usually ends once the fight between the strongest ends unless the winner is injured or there were some who thought that they were better than their representative.
Ebony had Mallory help to ban Ning Xin from fighting till 4 days later as a precaution.
The next day, he heard that the Empire’s symbolic Emperor’s disciple Lucas Lucero had arrived. The soldiers and civilians in the market gossiped. Not much was known about either disciple as they didn’t have many public appearances or famous feats. The other disciple, Demi Barlow was a bit more famous as one of the top Guardian Knights of the current generation but they ultimately didn’t know what these 2 students could do.
Lucas found his way to their camp during midday after meeting Mallory who had the most authority throughout the city.
Korta and his fellow aged companions were nowhere to be found but Lucas went straight up to Korben who ‘felt’ the strongest and wanted to join the battle against the Patriarchs’ squads. Lucas was a lizard man who was more lizard than man. He was scaled, tailed and lightly armoured. He was slightly smaller in frame than Top from the Z&Z escort party.
The lizard man was weak to cold and forced to yield after an entire hour. He did protect himself with water magic pretty well according to Cap Dwarf. Ebony and Ning Xin had been shopping for ingredients for pizza when the duel happened so he wasn’t personally there to see the duel. He only made it back in time for the duel between Lucas and Cap Dwarf.
Ebony was a bit disheartened to see that Lucas was a spearman. It was nowhere as painful to watch as Mark’s but the style was too different and he preferred Mark’s solid foundations. Mark practised basic thrusts and sweeps outside of his magical spin for runic spells but that was usually sufficient. If he didn’t spend so much time researching, he would have polished those simple movements to a much greater degree. Lucas had shown two extremes of offensive and defensive stances and moves that incorporated water and pure mana.
[Grand Spear Warden Lvl 342]
He was actually able to fight Cap Dwarf who was level 441 according to the man himself who shared it during one of their drinking sessions. Cap Dwarf didn’t summon his giant for the fight but Lucas had proved his ability. One interesting point he noted was that Lucas and other lizardmen he had seen using water magic tended to gather water mana in their throat or mouth. It might be similar to how mages started out by concentrating mana above their palms.
“You’re not going to ask him for a duel?” Ning Xin asked by the side. She already accepted that she wasn’t about to move around that much and was hugging a bag of assorted vegetables. The market had been pretty far away since the civilians had long moved away from this region of the city. She had hurried him along for the past hour but he wanted to take it slow.
“I don’t feel like it.” Ebony simply thought Lucas’s spearmanship was too stiff but he also knew that if he insisted on using Icicle for a direct exchange, he wouldn’t be able to parry every attack. The lizardman had a very impressive body enhancement magic. There was no doubt that the lizardman had an upper hand when it came to strength or physical prowess in general but that wasn’t anything that Ebony couldn’t deal with. Tons of monsters had higher physical stats.
He had a feeling it was an extremely refined and high-level tier 3 skill or a tier 4 one. If this guy evolved with 250% Fortification and had his body enhancement skill as one of those that met the skill requirement that would mean it was at least over level 600. Unless he had some kind of compounded enhancement of two or more types or a direct Fortification, then it would probably be tier 4 or there was no chance Ebony lost in terms of physical stats. Mana Compression has come a long way and his Profession’s Fortification of compressibility and density really shined.
From what he experienced from Athena and Cap Dwarf, it was likely two enhancement skills. They would use one with their main element and one pure mana version like his sound magic enhancement. His sound magic might hinder one’s personal body enhancement so it wouldn’t work for everyone.
Ning Xin compounds her life force-based enhancement with fire as an internal buff. Lightning was more of a pulsating internal buff while wind was used for external buffs. She used 4 types and now that her body was slowly changing, the amount of fire mana and vitality she was pushing through her veins made her a beast that no amount of compression could match. His domain previously gave him an upper hand but after she started compressing the blood in her body, her physical prowess could give Cap Dwarf a run for his money. Yet, even with all the speed and strength she could muster Ebony didn’t outright lose to her sword technique and overall fighting ability.
It had weighed on her pride and Ebony finally realised why she used to be so pissed or annoyed when sparring with him. It was not his fault that he had superior positioning, prediction and ability to redirect force. Gravity magic was quite the blessing when it came to force redirection which he was already excellent at. It had beaten into his body that he never had the upper hand when it came to the physical prowess of his mother. Out of the 3, positioning seems to be what his mother made him focus on, the other two were just developed naturally. He had comparatively terrible sword mastery, slower and weaker but he could still dodge, parry and counterattack the dual-wielding swordswoman to some extent.
Lucas asked Cap Dwarf of all the current participants and the Dwarf pointed at Ebony. “Alright! Hey there! Up for a duel to see who will take a stronger Troll as an opponent!?”
Ebony could hear it from afar, he had hoped Cap Dwarf would introduce that he was just a Master so that this Lizardman wasn’t interested in sparring. They wore an obfuscation jewel to prevent people from making false guesses of strength based on level and class. His essence be it Vitality or Wisdom isn’t what one would imagine was a Master so most assumed they were Grandmasters. Not that it mattered, he had Waning Presence working full-time to hide both. There was nothing he could do about stamina leakage no one seemed to be able to sense him through stamina. To begin with, his stamina regeneration was far more ridiculous but it doesn’t seem to have any effect on people or monsters. It was like Clovis told him, it was a legend that overflowing Endurance had any effect.
Oftentimes, they could believe a mage to have greater overflowing Wisdom than their levels. Good mages can utilise and direct their mana onto someone and not just with the portion that leaked. Just like how Christy fought her fellow Frost Elf with dense mana and it affected the soldier who carried him by the collar. However, Vitality was hard to ‘cheat’. Ebony hasn’t seen any humans manipulate life force much but it was apparently slightly more common for beastmen at Grandmaster rank and above.
The Supremacy Duels would take place 2 days later and it was pretty much for an internal hierarchy of power to be formed for both sides.
“It’s okay, I can’t beat Cap Dwarf in a direct conflict.” Ebony probably could if he counted outlasting and freezing the Dwarf to death but even that might take a full day. The old Dwarf could dispel his sonic vibrations with an equal vibrational pulse of his own mana and his earthen body was too hard for his physical and even ice magic to penetrate. Cap Dwarf couldn’t beat him either but he didn’t lie. Ebony didn't take into account the earthen giant that Cap Dwarf could conjure and he wasn't sure how much the Dwarf held back in their first exchange.
Thankfully, Ning Xin’s aura was weakened and Lucas didn’t force a duel to happen. Lucas barely spared them another glance before going around and asking for a duel.
At night, Athena came by and was goaded into a duel. Athena lost by an obvious degree. Ning Xin only complained about how Athena was fully healed but she wasn’t. Mallory had joined them for dinner when Athena came by and explained it was Ning Xin’s fault for having a strong and delicious life force. The Crown Princess was too busy to stay but she apparently finished healing half of all the injured and plagued soldiers. There wasn’t anyone else in grave danger which gave her a break. Lucas and Mallory were acquaintances or friends but they didn’t appear to be very close.
Lucas had already gone through the whole camp and was now pestering him and Ning Xin for a duel after asking around. He was quite sociable and already knew that the two of them were known to be two of the stronger people within the camp. Mallory had helped to push aside Ning Xin’s duel but she didn’t do anything to help Ebony decline.
During dinner, Ebony had more time to observe Mallory. He used to think about how she had quite a lot of mana but now he was sure. The Crown Princess had a huge reserve of mana, she definitely had mana capacity skills as a non-generic skill. Not to mention, she also regenerates mana faster than a Master’s Wisdom would suggest. It was passive, so he guessed she could either regenerate on the move like him or had a Physique that made her regenerate more mana than normal humans.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Quite a few people had been too nervous to join the Crown Princess at the same dining table so it had only been Lucas, Athena, Ning Xin, Mallory and him. The Crown Princess quite obviously came for Ning Xin’s food. Lucas didn’t say much about the meal, he had a cat’s tongue and thoroughly blew on his food which made him the slowest eater. They didn’t have pizza as the chef hadn’t experimented enough with it.
With Lucas’s attitude and personality seen so far, Ebony guessed that the lizardman was quite young. A bit like Hector but more prideful and less playful. “Come on, just a quick spar. Just for experience, winning or losing isn’t the point.”
‘Well, Xin’s unable to spar with me today. It’s a bit embarrassing to show the Emperor’s student my mastery of the greatsword after everyone praised me for being only matched by Cap Dwarf and Xin.’ Ebony gave in, a new sparring partner was always beneficial but he learned shame and was not comfortable with showing a good warrior his skill with the blade. He liked that Lucas didn’t seem as bothered by the result so he accepted it. “Okay.”
Lucas didn’t wear his light armour so Ebony didn’t put on his robe either. He just had a white t-shirt moulded with heat and cold-resistant runes on. He was still dressed in his casual wear after the shopping trip, he even recreated sneakers and Ning Xin loved wearing them for casual wear. They stood out in a way that he didn’t mind, he preferred Earth’s fashion sense.
“Give me a moment, I’ll set it up.” Cap Dwarf smacked his knee and went over to the device that controlled the training field’s barrier.
Lucas wasn’t all that tall or big, even his tail only reached his ankle when straightened. But the beastman still had a bit of height and reach advantage over Ebony. Lucas’s scales were dark blue and unlike any other lizardman, he had seen as it was dull instead of polished.
Ebony had a mini Frostblaze Augmentation so that he didn’t have flames burning over him and only glowed. He didn’t use Stalwart Endowment or Chaotic Repulsive Membrane. He was a target anyone would be able to see at night.
He kept his eye on Lucas’s spear and it transformed into a familiar towel. It was the towel that his mother moistened with water and stabbed at him for evasion training. Getting a single hit would fracture his bones, he had been hit too many times. The towel transformed into a spear in his eyes. Ebony couldn’t sense any danger at all from the spear in front of him.
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13-14.12.5537
Lucas Lucero had been a bit disappointed that the war had ended but also glad that there would be no more meaningless exchange of lives. He had never learned about what a Supremacy Duel was but the Crown Princess had informed him about what it suggested. It was perfect!
It might be a battle to the death but it was far more sensible than the siege. Pitting one continent’s strongest against the other. He had to earn his right to represent the Empire!
He already knew that Fifth Tide was under the Frost Elves’ care and found their base with ease. Despite all the resistance training his teacher had put him under, his racial trait made him naturally weaker to the cold. Since resistance skills increase by percentages based on natural resistances, having a high resistance skill level didn’t mean he was more resistant compared to a human or dwarf with the same tier and level of resistance. Of course, there was no value for natural base resistance so it was hard to tell.
There were two Frost Elves present and one of them felt extremely creepy. The Frost Elf who was full of smiles sent chills down his back in a way that made the monsters he faced feel like house pets. They were both old fossils and he was well-trained enough to sense that he wasn’t a match for either of them. However, that didn’t mean he could back down. Recalling his teacher’s words on how to be polite, he challenged the one known as Korben.
He went into the duel with confidence that he wouldn’t have a poor showing. He had experience fighting some senior Elves and was aware that their control over mana wasn’t something that he had reached or would ever reach. This experience helped him against the Frost Elves' tactics as it was similar except for the added cold that seeped through his Deepwater Plating with ease.
He wasn’t able to reach a conclusive end before he got too stiff to fight properly. No matter how much he tried to dispel the cold with internal blasts of mana the cold only came back and he was quite sure it didn’t cost Korben much mana to keep up the freezing. He even used the mana vibration method that he was taught to keep his body warm but even his mana was frozen.
Lucas went around the camp which was said to contain a few other members that would fight the top warriors of the Trolls. The Dwarf had been a standard Dwarven warrior, Lucas knew how to fight them. He felt like he could beat the Dwarf if he really tried. He wasn’t so foolish as to think Korben or the Dwarf used all their tricks but he felt like he should be one of the strongest here if the Dwarf was said to be the strongest after the Frost Elves.
Challenge after challenge, he was more and more sure that only the older Frost Elves were capable of threatening his life. The constant reminder rang in his head that he was not up to par yet. Lucas did his best to listen to his teacher’s words and pushed down any arrogance as much as possible.
He asked around and got a rough gauge of the power ranking in this small, non-army camp. By evening, there was only a woman called Athena, the blue-haired man named Ebony, that Cap Dwarf pointed to and the masked woman, Scarlet. Lucas had seen his fair share of masked people and didn’t link it to the Xengs. Her aura felt weak but her gaze and gait hinted at a beast. He heard that the Xengs currently only had one younger generation, their population was truly lacking. The current generation Xeng child was a craftswoman so he didn’t care much other than possibly getting a weapon made for him.
Lucas didn’t have updated information as he went into the World Dungeon with his teacher and fellow student for many years.
Athena had not been around so he only managed to challenge her when she came around with the Crown Princess. It was a slight surprise to learn that everyone here got hit by a shamanic plague. He had to give them slightly more credit for accepting his challenge even in their state of health. As expected, he didn’t catch it after interacting with these people.
He was well aware that the Crown Princess was quite similar to the current King and Queen when it came to her magic. Her overflowing essence likely healed anyone it came into contact with, just like how the Life Queen’s presence could heal a person. He had no idea how she was dealing with a plague but that was none of his business.
Athena was lower level than he was and other than her unique fighting style and decent skills for some random freelancer he didn’t have too much trouble with her. He could think about asking her to spar just to get used to her unique style of combat. He had to praise the unknown and likely self-created mana enhancement skill. He already fought against almost every famous Academy’s students and got a rough understanding of all of their skills. Athena’s every skill and technique seemed randomly put together but it blended pretty well.
He didn’t doubt the volunteer freelancers that Scarlet was right beneath Cap Dwarf but there was plenty of debate amongst the group when it came to Ebony and Scarlet. According to their rumours, both were on par during their training but every individual had a different opinion on the true winner. Lucas stopped them when they were about to talk about Scarlet and Ebony’s skills, he didn’t want such information even if they had seen some of his skills.
Lucas didn’t probe his senses explicitly, he only knew that Ebony hid his aura decently. The quiet man didn’t have the gaze of a beast or strong warrior, it almost seemed blank but endless at the same time. But his gait was similarly intimidating, this man had impeccable balance. Lucas believed that he was a strong warrior and balance was of great importance for a warrior. How exciting!
“Come on, just a quick spar. Just for experience, winning or losing isn’t the point.” He challenged the man again after a delightful dinner, his sense of taste was weak after all the poor meals for years but he could still enjoy the meal. He was a bit surprised that Scarlet was the chef, her gaze felt scarier after that. It felt like she was looking at him and pondering how to butcher his body.
Lucas frowned when he saw that Ebony didn’t take the greatsword that was by his side throughout dinner but he didn’t say anything. He made the challenge sound light to make Ebony more inclined to accept the challenge but he had hoped that Ebony would at least take it seriously.
He probed his senses onto the man to feel his aura as they walked over to the field. He was left shocked but physically unaffected. ‘His mana is heavy!’
Fortunately, he prepared and would not be caught off guard. He was used to King and even Emperor ranked auras from his time with his teacher but he would still be affected if he was suddenly rammed with such dense mana surrounding Ebony.
He recalled his younger self talking a lot of shit before a battle but now he was embarrassed by those memories. Combatants converse through a duel.
Ebony glowed blue and Lucas got into a wide stance with both his hands gripping his spear. He didn’t wait for the barrier and sent the first probing strike without water magic.
Lucas thrust at Ebony’s shoulder with all the strength he could muster. It would be a flesh wound even if he pierced through and the Crown Princess was present. He could only watch as Ebony shifted his shoulders aside ever so slowly and slightly. Having fully extended his thrust, he knew that the man evaded just enough so that not even his short-sleeved shirt got cut.
The unused building behind Ebony exploded as his spear thrust’s physical force was more than it could withstand. The barrier only came up after that. The ground was sturdier than he thought, it should be the Dwarf’s work.
It happened in an instant and Lucas followed up with another dozen thrusts but no matter where he aimed, Ebony would shift just enough to evade his strike. He was even stepping forward and closing the distance.
Lucas swapped to a wide sweep, he saw his spear landing on the body but it turned out to be an afterimage that faded and got blown apart by his sweep. Magic, it was not just an afterimage.
His body reflexively tensed and his spear jerked back to his side to guard. He blocked Ebony’s kick to his left shoulder from behind. Shocks were sent through his spear and arms that left him numb to the bones.
‘Mana vibrations!’ Lucas noted straight away. It was just like what his teacher taught him and the Guardian Knights. He unleashed his water enhancements and coated his spear. He had to be on the offensive!
The barrier made sure that they wouldn’t harm the spectators so he went blasting pressurised water shots with every thrust and sending blades of water with every slash and sweep. Propelling sweeps and thrusts with water to increase his power.
But no matter how much he increased his power or speed, the spear in his hands did not receive feedback.
Ebony was fast but it shouldn’t have been enough to evade his strikes unless he saw it coming. Lucas changed his target to the body which was easier to hit but the result was more disheartening. The sight of his spear stabbing through Ebony’s chest and belly repeated over and over again but the illusion faded every single time and his spear didn’t receive any feedback. When he turned away from body blows, all Ebony did was lean back or to the side and countered with a kick to his shoulder or belly.
He could clearly see and block all of Ebony’s kicks but his spear couldn’t touch a single hair on the man.
Lucas gathered and compressed water mana in his throat, faced the ground and blasted the area. The barrier acted as a container to turn this battlefield to be more advantageous to him. The water level reached his hips despite the large enclosed area.
His movements sped up drastically and he lunged at Ebony’s face. It might be a fatal blow but Ebony’s aura of vitality was strong, he would survive long enough for the Crown Princess or any other healer to get to.
He lit up when it felt a response from his spear but he could only watch as his opponent simply had his right hand already up near his face. The hand slowly touched the flat body of his spearhead and a tiny bit of force shifted his thrust to fly by the target. Before he knew it a fist rammed into his belly and sent him skidding across the water he conjured. Ebony had taken a step forward as he blocked his spear to the side and punched out.
‘How humiliating, the punch came from underwater.’ Lucas was prepared to guard against mana vibrations so it didn’t really hurt.
With one hand holding his spear firm, he rotated his supporting hand and allowed his spear to ‘row’ in the water. 4 water spears coiled his spear and he dashed out with water pushing him forward.
“Let’s see you slap these aside!” He mentally rebuked himself for shouting out such lame words.
There was no expression to be seen on the man. Lucas had aimed for the same spot but his main spear hit the face with another water spearhead. The three other spearheads were positioned to seal evasion to both sides with the last going for the chest.
Ebony’s feet flickered away from his sight and swept at the three spearheads going for the body. Lucas forced down his words ‘These are made of water you fool!’
His mind cooled as he sensed his water mana stiffen. They froze before his feet even reached but it didn’t freeze till the contact point of his main spear. Those 3 water spearheads snapped and shattered but his main attack wasn’t affected, the force from pushing his water spears aside didn’t transmit to his physical spear.
However, Ebony’s foot didn’t drop back down to the floor after kicking and Lucas’s eyes were drawn to the leg instead of watching his spear thrust land. His opponent had twisted his hip and body along with the sweep, he leaned back slightly to dodge the last water spearhead to his face but was still in Lucas's lunge’s path. Lucas's physical spear would land on his opponent's neck instead of cheeks but he couldn’t stop it anymore.
In slow motion, Lucas saw the kick stop in mid-air abruptly. It changed direction and slammed into the back of his head. The back of Ebony’s knee had pushed his elbow and shoulder at the same time, narrowly shifting his spear’s path away.
With a giddy head, his wobbly feet couldn’t stand straight. The control over his water magic was released as he could barely keep his thoughts straight. His body didn’t let him down, the body of his spear shot up to block the pushing kick to his torso while he kicked himself back.
He wasn’t in the mental state to manipulate water to slow him down as he smashed hard into the barrier. Neither did he dispel the mana vibrations that shocked his arms and entire body. It didn’t let his mind recover. His arms skewed to the side to defend against the next pushing kick.
This time, he had no air or water to fly across. The barrier behind him forced him to take the full impact.
“GAH!” He coughed but no blood came out. He wasn’t so fragile. The shock woke him up and the water around him transformed into spears to stab at Ebony. He didn’t even dodge and backhanded the water spears, freezing before shattering them.
The mini lake started to freeze starting from him and none of his mental efforts to condense his water or to swift them aside so that he was frozen within it worked. It was already overtaken and frozen. Lucas didn’t even know when he got heavier but he had high gravity resistance so it didn’t weigh him down that much.
“Alright, I give up!” Lucas yelled out. He had way more skills and spells to show but he wasn’t in the mood anymore. The display of skill had erased his motivation to continue.
This guy was supposed to be under Cap Dwarf but Lucas didn’t see it that way. He was faster and more robust than Ebony but his spear wouldn’t reach the man in front of him.