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

Mateus was sprawled on the ground as he was being healed by the medical team after the last round that lasted all of five seconds. To say he was caught off guard would be an understatement. He did not expect for his rival Sadrach to have such a card hidden away. To think that he was a spellsword… But besides that, Mateus could only wince in pain as he felt the blood still flowing out of him though eventually the warmth of the healing spells the priests were casting on him had started to spread as his wounds were closing. It was a clean hit landed on him and he could do naught to have anticipated it earlier. Mateus could only frown as he sat up and looked at Sadrach who was being cheered on by the members of the Hutabaru clan.

At the sight of the young Hutabaru warrior using magics to strengthen himself and boost his speed to such a level, many of the Sigompul clansmen stood up in protest and outrage as many of them called the move foul and some even shouted for a disqualification. While Mateus had shared such sentiments especially after being the main victim of such a surprise attack, he couldn't help but feel that they could only say that because this was a duel. But what if it were a real battle in a war? There were no such things as foul moves and whatnot in the heat of battle. If he was caught unaware like that in an actual war, his life was already gone just like that. All those years of training amounting to nothing but ashes blown by the wind all because of a moment of lapsed caution.

Mateus finally looked towards the Royal stands where his father and clan elders had gotten up to lodge a complaint on Sadrach's actions. Elder Sabam Hutabaru and Hamoraon too got up to the Royal stands to make a counter argument. All this while King Parhal was slumped over with his sunken eyes and chin resting upon his hand as he seemed like he was giving the matter very deep thought.

Finally after a while of thought, as the courtyard was getting rowdier and louder, King Parhal had raised his hand once more and started to release his aura upon the entire area. It was such a splendid show of force that even Mateus could feel the pressure coming from the King at the opposite edge of the courtyard. Seeing this, the area started to quiet down as the pressure permeated and Elder Marasi had stood up and gathered his own aura before bellowing out in a shout, “SILENCE!!! THE KING SPEAKS!!”

As the courtyard had completely quieted, King Parhal finally stood up once more and spoke up after coughing a few times.

“...The second round of the match…” King Parhal started “...is won by the young Lord Sadrach Hutabaru… This duel is a show of all abilities by our young warriors. All their abilities… If the young Sadrach has the talent to fight as a spellsword… then young Lord Mateus must either overcome that challenge or just give up… There won’t be any rules of mercy on the field of battle. Thus is my decision…”

After the king said that, he sat back down into his seat as the rest of the clan elders had no choice but to accept the ruling as they went back to their seats. Mateus could only make a grimace on his face before he nodded his head towards the king’s ruling. It was a natural yet unfortunate outcome for him. Yet at the very least, now he had ample ability as well as time to prepare against his opponent’s new magical capabilities. While Mateus had never properly engaged a magic-user before, he at the very least knew enough from his training sessions with Lord Parulian as well as some careful observations towards Timotheus that a magic user was usually more vulnerable in close-quarter combat, yet the situation wasn’t so simple when it came to spellswords.

Spellswords had the best of both worlds when it comes to combat prowess and even if he managed to close his distance with Sadrach as could be seen from the first round, while he might be physically stronger and more imposing than the smaller Sadrach, the young master of the Hutabaru was no slouch in a fight. With all these thoughts simmering within his mind as he focused on his opponent, a taunting smile on Sadrach’s face - clearly meant to anger and rile him up - only caused Mateus to frown further. Without further ado, Mardomu had returned to the courtyard and signalled for the third round to start as the drums were struck once more signifying the start of the third round.

Sadrach repeated his earlier tactic of boosting his speed with wind magic, but this time Mateus was prepared. Sidestepping when his opponent appeared just in front of him, Mateus immediately launched a counter offensive with strikes aimed towards Sadrach’s vitals which his opponent was then forced to either dodge or block, giving Mateus the slightest advantage within this encounter. Not willing to give his opponent the chance to strike back with magics as he could see flames start to appear around Sadrach’s hands, Mateus continued to launch vicious slashes and strikes towards his opponent.

The exchange of blows continued for quite a while between the two young warriors before Sadrach finally backed away from the engagement as he looked like he was chanting a few spells when balls of fire appeared upon his hands before he threw them as projectiles towards Mateus. Mateus could only grit his teeth as he unleashed his aura to try his best to block the incoming balls of fire, but they still packed more of a punch than he anticipated. It was a stroke of bad luck for him but perhaps a stroke of cunning genius from his opponent when Sadrach had quickly cast a spell to freeze the part of the ground Mateus was about to place his right foot on. It was too late for Mateus to pull his feet back and for a split second, he lost his balance and his footing as he stumbled and just as this happened, Sadrach had appeared once more in front of him to land a strike. Though Mateus had done his best to block Sadrach’s quick swipe, he felt a very slight searing pain appear once more on his chest as some very faint drops of blood appeared from what looked like superficial scratches. With just that small insignificant knick towards his flesh, Mardomu had called the third round in favour of Sadrach.

“Arghh you damned dishonorable bastard!!” Mateus screamed out in frustration towards Sadrach as he threw his blade to the ground in anger. Mardomu had quickly stepped in to separate Mateus from Sadrach to prevent escalation.

“Calm down, nephew.” Mardomu said as he exerted a little of his fourth star aura to push Mateus back which snapped a little bit of sense back into Mateus. “Either you pull your act together and get back at Sadrach in the next round, or you forfeit this mach right here and now in disgrace. The choice is yours.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

With that, Mateus only nodded and backed off after he picked his sabre back up and headed towards his corner for the round break as the medical team appeared once more to heal him of any injuries. Though it was only a scratch compared to his previous wounds, the mental fatigue Mateus had accumulated in the last round was far more than he had experienced since the beginning of the duel. It was an unprecedented feeling of dread and frustration welling up inside as due to the constraints of the rules of the match, he can’t even force himself to tank the damage done towards him as having even the slightest drop of blood drawn from him marked the end of the round. If Sadrach wins the fourth round, there wouldn’t even be a fifth. All this worked to frustrate him further.

As Mateus glanced at the stands of his clan, he caught sight of his father shaking his head in great disappointment. Mateus grimaced back at the man. His damned iron-handed father couldn’t be pleased even on a good day, let alone by such a disappointing view of his son’s current match. This was in contrast with Mateus’ grandfather, Elder Hagogoan, who was still clapping and cheering him on.

“C’mon boy! Pick yourself back up! Send that prissy boy with the pretty face crying back to his mother!” Elder Hagogoan said as he shouted towards Mateus. “Also, I’ve bet a lot of money on your victory in the match boy, so you better make it up to me!”

Mateus could only shake his head at his grandfather’s absurd way of motivating him, but regardless of that, it was working as his frustration had somewhat abated. Now was the time for him to regain some seriousness for the match. Though the conclusion of the match regardless of his victory wouldn’t be changed as the clans had agreed that Helena would indeed be engaged to Sadrach, It would still bring much shame and dishonor towards him and the Sigompul clan’s name were he to be defeated so one-sidedly like that. And so with that thought, Mateus slapped his own cheek to get himself out of his stupor and refocus himself towards the match.

Soon enough, break time was over and the fourth round was about to commence once more. Mateus had decided to empty his mind of any useless and frivolous thoughts as he focused himself on only one mission. To draw blood from the opponent in front of him. He blurred out Sadrach’s face from his sight and focused only on the vital spots on his body as he looked towards ways in which he could deal with the spellsword.

Perhaps it was due to his intense use of magic in the previous fight, but Sadrach’s breathing was still greatly ragged and his stance slightly shaken. Though magic could heal wounds and the like, it took a far larger amount of effort to use magic to restore someone’s mana or aura reserves. Such a thing was impractical and doing so would be difficult except for the best of healers and to expend such an amount of mana and energy for a mock duel would be foolishness of the highest order. With this newfound optimism, Mateus breathed in once more before he let out his breath as the match was about to start. It was a dangerous gamble that he was about to do, but it might just work out for him.

As Mardomu signalled for the match to resume once more for the fourth round, this time, it was Mateus who went all out from the start as he expended a ridiculous amount of aura to strengthen himself as he charged towards Sadrach who had failed to capitalise on his speed as he had done so in the previous two rounds. Mateus utilised the raw strength and power of his aura to overwhelm Sadrach who’s mana and aura appeared like it wouldn’t be able to do much against Mateus.

While Sadrach did indeed try once again to hurl magics towards Mateus, the power felt from those attacks were significantly lessened as Mateus’ aura acted like a barrier shield from the deadly use of magic. It was in such a state that Mateus had forced Sadrach to once more rely on the strength of his arm in the current match.

Several blows were traded between the two warriors but with Mateus going all out, it didn't take long before Sadrach was overpowered by the larger man and through sheer brute force and the strength of his aura, Mateus slashed away at Sadrach’s hand causing him to disarm and hold his hand as blood gushed forward out of the wound. Immediately as that happened, Mardomu raised his hand once more and called the victory in favour of Mateus. The stands of the Sigompul clan erupted in cheers as they witnessed their young warrior defeat a spellsword through sheer will and strength of arms.

Mateus wanted to revel in his victory in the round but a sudden surge of fatigue throughout his body caused him to lose the strength in his legs as he fell to his knees, barely managing to hold himself up with his sabre. The medical teams had arrived at the scene and at once began their usual work of healing the two combatants.

Despite his fatigue, Mateus could feel the rush of adrenaline also start to take into effect as he dawned on him that the next round would be the last round to the fight. He had a decent shot at winning the duel and with it, upholding his honour as a warrior. Armed purely by this determination despite being led to sit and rest a while by the medical team, Mateus stood up once more and looked towards his clansmen before raising his sabre and howling out a fearsome battlecry.

Elder Gogo along with the rest of the Sigompul warriors among the stands - with the clear exception of his father Ronggur - all stood up after unsheathing their weapons and responded in kind with their own battlecries. If one didn’t know any better when they saw this scene, they would think that Mateus had won the entirety of the duel. But regardless, this was a great morale boost to Mateus and he would see to it that he gained his victory.

After the ten minutes of the break were over, Mateus stood up and brought himself to the center of the stage once more as he prepared himself for the final round. Ten minutes were far from enough to recover his strength from the last round but regardless it was all he had to work with, but as he saw the look on Sadrach’s face who seemed to be no better off than he was, he felt that little bit more confident in his chances of a victory.

Just as he readied himself and as Mardomu was walking towards the center of the match where he and his opponent were readying themselves for the final bout, from the corner of his eye, Mateus caught sight of something that instantly took away all his focus from the match. At the stands across from the royal stands to his left where the other major clans were, Mateus saw a young woman had arrived accompanied by Sadrach’s sister who had led the young woman towards a seat. Without him realising it, Mateus had locked eyes with the young woman whom he had known all too well. His former lover, Arta, had arrived to watch the match.

As the young woman sat herself down on one of the bench stands, she had quickly caught notice that Mateus was looking at her, but contrary to his expectations - well to be fair he didn’t even know what he was expecting when he saw her as he hadn’t had any actual contact with the girl for months - Arta only looked at him with a forlorn gaze but a slight smile forming on her lips. As he kept his gaze towards her, he hadn’t noticed that Mardomu was calling out to him to focus back on the match.

“Hey, son, are you alright…?” Mardomu asked his nephew with a firm tap on his shoulder.

“...-Huh?! Oh yeah… I’m fine, tulang…” Mateus felt like he was snapped out of a trance before he focused himself back to Mardomu.

“Alright then… Then with this. Ladies and gentlemen, I proclaim the start of the fifth and final round! May the best warrior win!!”

And with that, the fifth round commenced.