Sabatsday, 6th of Aprillia, 470th year of the 5th Era

It had been a few days since the incident at Johannes' home. The elders of the Gorian clans had agreed between themselves the details of when, where, and how the duel would be conducted. It was to be held at the Courtyard of the King's Bolon House and double as a Marhusip’ ceremony as well to officialize the engagement between Tuan Sadrach Hatoguan Hutabaru and the Lady Helena Darapati boru Sinatua.

Mateus' father - Tuan Ronggur Habinsaran Sigompul - had already agreed to rescind his own proposal of betrothal between Mateus and Helena, but because of Sadrach's and Mateus' insistence on some sort of duel to be held, the elders relented to their wants after confirming it with King Parhal. The king had acquiesced to the request because he wanted it to be a showcase of the prowess of Goria's young warriors in preparation of the Grand Gotilon Festival's tournament. And with that, the duel was to be set in the afternoon with a public audience.

Josias was currently in the training grounds for the village guards. It was a quaint facility located perched on top of a small hill next to the Arus river to the north of the village borders still inside the palisade. It served both as a facility to house many of the village’s guards within a barracks while also boasting a stone-based wooden tower to help guard both the northern gates as well as the entryway of the river next to the village. The courtyard of the training grounds itself was located within this greater complex of military-oriented buildings.

Josias held his blunted training sabre out as he pointed it towards Johannes who was in front of him doing the same as their stances were steady, not giving a chance for their opponent to exploit an opening. They were in the middle of an intense spar in one of the circular stone tile-stages within the yard. Parulian was standing not too far from the two on a podium as a vantage point to better overlook the sparring session while next to him stood Hesekiel who stood there imposingly and stoically as always, though it was clear from his glistening body and his wet headband that he had also just recently finished a sparring match. Not too far away from them lay several guardsmen sprawled on the ground after having ‘aided’ the younger warriors as sparring partners.

Johannes had made the first move as he came on strong with a heavy swing from his training sabre right towards Josias' head which Josias just narrowly evaded by pivoting slightly to the side whilst closing in towards his opponent instead of moving away. As Josias struck hard towards Johannes’ vulnerable chest, fully intent on making it a quick victory, Johannes quickly swung his sword back up to parry Josias' strike though he was still put on the backfoot. Capitalizing on this, Josias continued to pursue a relentless onslaught of slashes and swings towards his larger opponent, each aiming for critically vital parts of his body.

Johannes had grit his teeth as he made a valiant effort to block all of Josias' savage attacks even throwing in a few counter attacks of his own but it didn't bother Josias too much as he kept on dodging the attacks using subtle weaves whilst immediately connecting his dodges with more attacks. While Josias managed to keep up his relentless attacks, he himself knew that he was beginning to tire. While to an untrained eye, he was at an overwhelming advantage against his larger opponent, and indeed when it came to skill it could be said that Josias was the most skilled warrior among all of his peers by a wide margin. However, that did not change the fact that Johannes' larger muscle mass and his own skills being very good, when it came to endurance and sheer brute force power, Josias was at a noticeable disadvantage especially when his father insisted on the training to not utilise aura as it would put Johannes at a severely unfair disadvantage.

Not willing to waste anymore time and effort, Josias increased the intensity of his attacks and started incorporating wilder and more unorthodox techniques to batter down Johannes’ defensive stance. Josias threw another strike towards Johannes' head which the bigger man managed to parry but almost at the same time after that, Josias landed a solid kick towards Johannes' right shin which caused the big man to lose his balance. Connecting with this kick, Josias stabbed his sword towards Johannes who managed to deflect it but this just caused the bigger man to fall.

However, as Johannes fell, before his body touched the ground, he put his hands below him and pushed himself back up, discarding his sabre in the process, and taking a newer and lower stance before he set out to attack. Josias could only laugh as he saw his opponent taking a ‘Mossak’ stance which was the traditional and standard form of Halak martial arts. Unfortunately for Johannes, Josias had no intention of showing him mercy and continued his onslaught towards his now unarmed opponent, kicking his training sabre away. Just as the training sabre was about to land a clean hit on Johannes, Parulian bellowed out.

“Enough!!” Parulian shouted out with a grin as he held both his hands on his hips. “And the victor is Josias!”

Josias felt the rush of adrenaline seemingly flush out of him as he raised one arm in celebration of his victory before slumping down on the ground, breathing haggardly as sweat beads were pouring down like rainwater from all the pores in his body. Josias proceeded to utilise his aura to stabilise his condition and soon enough his breathing calmed and he could feel a cool rush flowing through him.

Parulian had gotten off the podium and approached the two young men who were now both sitting on the ground using their aura to recuperate themselves. Parulian still had his grin about him as he crossed his arms and began his assessment.

“I have to say that's been good progress these past few days, and you two are indeed strong…” Parulian said before he sat himself down on the ground next to the two and continued “But that's only relative to the warriors of the realm. The Halaklands are a very big place, sons, and the wider world even bigger than that. Don't you ever get complacent or else that will be your downfall. There's no bigger disservice to one's self than being a frog in a well. But I'm sure now you're beginning to understand why I insist on training to mostly be done without aura, right?”

“To make it fair for Lae Jo?” Josias said with a teasing grin as he pointed towards Johannes.`

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“Of course that's not it, idiot!” Johannes growled before he gave it a second thought and asked Parulian “Or is it?”

“No, of course not!” Parulian said with a smile before scratching his head “Well, at least not entirely, y'know.”

Josias laughed as Johannes merely hung his head in shame. Hesekiel had joined the group as he sat himself on the ground along with the others while Parulian continued his explanation.

“While the techniques people use to train in their auras would of course differ from place to place and time to time, there is one thing that remains true across all ages.” Parulian said as he raised one finger to present his case “No matter how much aura or mana you have, if you don't have a grasp of the proper basic techniques of fighting, regardless of what technique that may be, you are no better than an army that only has numbers to its name. Our King Parhal, while it is indeed the truth that the raw power of his aura is awe inspiring, what people tend to forget is that his proper grasp of basic technique is what won him his moniker as King of Goria. Without the use of any aura, at the age of but sixteen, he has slain the commander of the Snake-men army that had invaded from the north. Because of skill! While our auras are an inseparable part of our being, over-reliance on aura would leave us stranded in a prolonged fight. While at his prime as a swordsaint, my father was very much capable of slaughtering hundreds of starred warriors, he was capable of doing so even without reliance on his aura, only using his aura to negate his opponent’s use of it… Your aura is an extension of yourself! Remember that boys. If you're capable of splitting mountains without it, then the logic follows that with the addition of aura to your skills, even the earth itself would split.”

Josias had rested his head on both his arms as he heard his father speak. It was just about the same lecture he'd give after every training that Josias was half-tempted to act out all the words as he almost knew them verbatim. But if he thought about what his father would put him through if he did that, Josias relented.

“Anyways, about your earlier sparring match…” Parulian continued “It was a good enough effort I'd say, but there's still a whole lot more room for improvement. Josi, you're still horrible in managing your energy exertion. Sure if you're focused on a one on one duel like that, perhaps you can get away with it, but on the real field of battle? Back at Haumarara during the coalition war, I was cornered by five three-star warriors while I was barely at my fourth star but do you know what I did?”

“...You beat them anyway without even using your aura…” Josias said with a completely bored tone as he'd heard his father tell this story for the thousandth time already.

“And don't you forget it, boy!”

“I don't think I physically can at this point…”

“And you Jojo…” Parulian pointed towards the bigger man.

“Yes, sir?” Johannes awaited his assessment.

“Well, you did good enough, but your biggest problem is still the same. You're still playing it far too defensively hence leaving yourself at a severe disadvantage against an opponent like Josi who can't sit still for the life of him. While such tactics might prove supremely useful against stronger opponents who are looking to overpower you, fast bruisers like Josi will remain your worst enemy. But I do have to commend you on your quick change of stance into the mossak style. I stopped your battle not because I don't trust your skills in unarmed combat, but because I don't trust in my boy’s ability to be able to properly engage you without seriously harming you. No matter how strong you are, without aura, I don't expect you to be able to handle such a blow with nothing but your bare hands. That would be akin to me asking you for your suicide… But still I appreciate you being able to hold up for so long."

“I thank you for your kind words, Amang…” Johannes bowed his head in respect.

“But regardless, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let us now then start our aura training like usual… positions, boys!”

As Parulian said that, the young men positioned themselves as they crossed their legs and laid their hands upon their laps as they started the process of aura training. It was a process that all the warriors of the Halak had been accustomed to as they concentrated in honing their aura and the mana cores within them, circulating it throughout their bodies.

Josias felt the surge of his own mana within him, as if circulating throughout his veins like a rush of a torrent. The process of growing one’s mana-core or ‘star’ was deceptively straightforward. Gather the innate aura from within one’s body, circulate it around, then absorb the mana from the world around inside in order to increase the mana capacity within one's body and subsequently increase the number of mana-cores or starts as a result. Though it sounded simple, in practice it was very difficult and had a lot of personalisation between one person and the other. On that end, all Parulian could provide them was the basic materials for a blanket increase in mana capacity for aura but the expression of said aura - outside of some minor instructions - was mainly left to individual practice and talent. Josias himself had great talent in regards to his aura. It had not been a few weeks since he acquired his third star during the Rhino hunt, but now he had already greatly stabilised his new core and was in the process of filling it. Though it was a very, very slim chance, perhaps it would even be possible to attain a new core before the tournament.

They had continued their practice for the next hour or so until the sun had started to tilt to the west from its zenith and tinges of the orange sky started showing. Josias had finally opened his eyes after he finished gathering his aura. Though physically he didn't look like he did anything strenuous, being sat down on the ground the entire time, his body was sweating profusely and his breathing was slightly ragged. The amount of patience and concentration aura training required was out of this world, more so if one were to factor in the various applications of said aura in actual fights as techniques. As Josias glanced around him to his two friends who were also seemingly done with their training, he saw that they looked equally as haggard as he was.

“I can feel it, tulang…” Johannes said as he looked towards Parulian “I think just a bit more and I'll also finally reach the third star!”

“Hahahahaha! Brilliant stuff, Jojo!” Parulian bellowed out with a hearty laugh and proud smile “Our village is truly blessed with so many talented young warriors! You're even better than your father who just almost barely reached the second star at your current age, hahaha!”

“You should take a look at this guy too…” Josias said. As the two men laughed in joy and excitement, Josias pointed towards Hesekiel who was also done with his training. While Hesekiel's breathing remained ragged like the rest of them, his face was as calm as ever. “Lae Hesekiel seems to be on the brink of advancement as well.”

Hesekiel merely looked towards them and nodded as he motioned to get up. Parulian laughed as he clapped before also getting up.

“God has blessed us all indeed! This is wonderful! The other Realms won't know what's coming towards them…” Parulian said as he helped Josias and Johannes up “Now, all we need is to help focus on the training of those two idiots… speaking of which, we should all get ourselves cleaned. Their match is about to start soon and with stakes like that and a bloody rivalry, we need to make sure nothing even worse happens.”

Josias and the rest nodded in agreement. Mateus and Sadrach were about to have their duel and they couldn't miss it even if it's just to make sure that nothing bad happens. And so with that, they had left the training grounds and headed for the courtyard of the great hall.