The cave tunnel was dark, damp, and cold. Two figures were sitting slumped against the wall, exhausted and out of breath. They had been running in the dark for who knew how long until they collapsed. Fortunately, the tunnels were maze-like and complex, and they had successfully lost whatever was chasing them for now.

A dim orange light chased away the darkness as a broken sword glowed with heat, paired with the glowing orb of a Jewel Armament. Using the light, Arovin inspected himself and his companion, a human girl equipped with a saber. They were both covered with light wounds and bruises.

Earlier, they had made their way through this complicated tunnels and found an underground river where a Horde group made camp by its banks. There was also a set of crude airboats resting on the water’s surface. Some of the goblins were loading strange items and equipments which they probably scavenged from some nearby ruins into the boats.

Arovin and his group was about to fall back, knowing that their small numbers would be at a great disadvantage in a scuffle when an unfortunate event occurred. Something that resembled a giant worm crawled out of a tunnel from behind them and they were forced to enter the cavern where the Horde camp was.

All hell broke loose as they fought against the Horde and the giant worm. Separated from the rest of the group, Arovin and the girl escaped through a different tunnel hoping to somehow regroup or make their way back to the surface. Unfortunately, the labrynthine tunnels were too complex and the two easily got lost.

“This is all wrong!” the girl exclaimed. “This mission is all wrong! Goeden’s upper ranks must be trying to kill us… They’re probably conniving with the other races to take down the successors of Havencinque’s noble families!”

Arovin scrunched his brows. His group of five had four human nobles including this girl. He had heard of such conspiracies from his father’s followers, and thought that they were complete nonsense. A slight doubt appeared in his mind. The mission they were assigned today had gone horribly wrong. The existence of the giant worm was a surprise to them, but did the higher ups knew about this? If they did, why would they send a small group of first year recruits to do the mission?

He shook his head and denied the conspiracy theories forming in his thoughts. He had to prioritize one thing first and that was his survival.

“We need to move,” said Arovin as he gripped the girl’s arm and pulled her up on her feet. “Your outburst might have clued the Horde our location. And maybe other creatures that had made this tunnel their home.” He remembered the creatures he had fought against in his first mission.

Arovin led their party of two down the tunnel. He didn’t dare use the academy uniform’s torch. The light would be a dead giveaway of their presence from afar. On the other hand, the dim light of the glowing broken blade could be anything. Using the torch at the right time in the right situation would also increase his chances of survival.

The human girl was called Yssa and she was from a family of minor nobility. She knew Arovin’s standing was much higher than hers. She did not dare disrespect him and be disobedient with his orders. She grudgingly treaded close behind him in the dark.

Arovin tried many things to find a way out. He tried listening on the ground and walls for vibrations. He tried detecting wind movement in the tunnels. He also tried figuring out if the tunnel they were walking through was inclined upward. None of those proved useful.

“I think I heard something,” whispered Yssa. She was too close and her warm breath reached Arovin’s nape. This annoyed him greatly, but it was too stupid to make a big deal out of it. Furthermore, he also noticed the sound.

They stopped walking as he raised the broken sword higher. They were walking near a wall and the dim light could barely reach the other wall. All around them was complete darkness.

They waited for quite some time but nothing happened. Keeping the sword raised, Arovin and Yssa continued walking.

Then, there it was. The sound was a third set of footsteps trying to match with the rhythm of one of their own. And it was gradually getting closer.

Arovin quickly turned around and pulled Yssa behind him as he dashed forward. In a few steps, the light from his sword shone on a pale figure with hollow eyes.

“Light!” he shouted to Yssa. She knew what he meant and turned on her torch. This way, he did not need to rely on the light from his sword during the fight.

The sudden brightness caused the undead to fall back in momentary blindness. It was a strange thing to see as the undead had hollow sockets for eyes. Despite the light shining on it, nothing could be seen from those holes but complete darkness.

His sword was only two-thirds of its original length, but Arovin swung it at his opponent nevertheless. The broken blade didn’t deter him. He had already adjusted his movements to make up for the lost length.

The undead was very agile. It swiftly recovered from being blinded and dodged the attack. It was grazed on the arm, cutting right through its leather arm wraps. Smoke hissed from the burnt leather.

Arovin followed up his attack with another slash. His feet continued to move and followed his target, keeping himself close. The undead raised a dagger to block. The glowing blade didn’t stop but was slowed down. It continued to slice off the dagger like hot knife through butter.

The undead used that moment to cause the incoming attack to veer off target. Another dagger appeared in its other hand and stabbed at Arovin’s exposed side.

Arovin didn’t hesitate to let go of his weapon. Using his free hand, he grabbed the arm of the undead. His other hand went to the button on his chest.

The torch blasted its bright light directly at the face of the undead. Staggered and blinded, its grip on its weapon loosened. Arovin stole the dagger from its hand and pushed the undead on the floor. He quickly mounted the undead and stabbed it at the side of its neck. He then forcefully pulled the dagger upward, cutting through half of its neck, spilling black blood.

He searched for his sword as the undead struggled beneath him. Fortunately, it was nearby and he used it to completely cut the undead’s head off, cauterizing the exposed flesh and reducing the spilling blood.

From down the tunnel, the sound of running feet and screeching approached.

“Damn it!” cursed Arovin. “Let’s go!”

He brought the dagger with him as they made a run for it. At an intersection of tunnels, he threw the bloody dagger as far as he could in one tunnel. Turning off their torches, they ran through the opposite tunnel with only a glowing sword to light their path.

The distraction bought them a few minutes but it didn’t take long before the screeching goblins were once again hot on their heels. In this situation, not using the torch would be foolhardy.

With their paths brightly lit, the duo could finally keep ahead and prevent the chasingcrowd from closing the distance. They were at a stalemate until the two finally began running out of stamina. Gradually, they slowed down and their death was quickly approaching.

Yssa was the first to fall down. Her legs gave out and she stumbled, hitting her head on the hard ground and knocking her into a daze. Arovin did not choose to abandon her. He immediately stumbled into a stop and crawled his way back to her.

The girl wanted to tell him to go and save himself. He obviously had much more stamina than her. In fact, most of their trek through the tunnels earlier was slowed down by her. She knew he could have managed much easier and faster on his own, but decided to accompany her instead.

Now, he could leave her to distract the enemies buy himself some time, but instead he chose to stay and die with her. She wanted to be the same as him and tell him to go and leave her but her words were caught in her throat. A part of her also wanted him to be here. She didn’t want to die alone.

The tunnel rumbled. It was not caused by the stomping feet. The goblin crowd and the orcs behind them slowed to a stop as they noticed the rumbling walls and shaking ground. Both sides were probably thinking of the same thing: was the giant worm about to appear again?

The ceiling broke apart as a huge metal object fell and landed between the two groups. It looked like an egg with arms and legs, and a protruding backside. In its hands were a pair of gunblades. The appearance of this object that was almost twice as tall as normal human caused both sides of the conflict to be stunned.

The object moved and turned its face on the human duo. It’s egg-shaped body tilted slightly forward as if nodding. Then, it faced the Horde and raised both weapons. This clear act of hostility caused the Horde to screech and growl as they started stampeding toward their new target.

Thundering booms and blinding flashes of light filled the tunnels. It was like being in the midst of a lightning storm. The smell of burning air filled Arovin’s and Yssa’s lungs, almost suffocating them both.

After a total of twelve shots, the tunnel was filled with the sound of groaning and screams. The few who survived the onslaught didn’t have much to live as they crawled and rolled on the blood and flesh of their comrades and their own.

The metal giant turned and faced the duo. The egg body seemed to split in half. Its front half moved forward and tilted downward. From the exposed cavity, a figure clothed completely in black appeared. On its black mask was a pair of red lenses where the eyes were. It jumped down from the object and approached the two.

“Sorry about that,” a male voice came from behind the mask. He waved his hand and Arovin and Yssa felt something enter their nostrils and their lungs. Whatever it was pulled out the poisonous air from them and was replaced with relatively cleaner air.

“I’m from the Azure Trails.”

Exhausted and finally feeling safe from the man’s words, the two relaxed and fainted.

When Arovin woke up, he found himself in an unfamiliar room. It was simple and clean. He sat up and groaned. His body hurt worse than when he got pummeled by his father during sword sparring. Looking at his body, he was left in his underwear (which was not his) and his injuries had been tended to.

On the bedside table was a spare uniform. He put it on and it oddly fit perfectly on him just like his previous one. There was also a note sticking on top of the table.

“Go to the deck.”

With no clues as to what was going on, he decided to go with the note. He left the room and easily found guidelines on the corridor wall. He followed the one with the label for the deck. Although he was curious about the other places, he thought against it and chose to just meet the mystery person that had saved him.

It was easy to figure out that he was an airship. He had walked through a corridor with small viewing ports to see outside. All he saw was the sea of clouds.

The corridors were oddly empty of traffic, although he could feel eyes on him and the sound of doors lightly closing whenever he tried to look back. It was strange.

He reached a door labeled Deck. Opening it, bright sunlight seeped in.

On the deck, two people were fighting against each other. One was a man in his early thirties and the other was a teenage girl, both people he knew.

The man was Fleet General Keifre Kraden. He was a man he felt mixed emotions for. He hated the man for hogging the glory of the defense against the Horde invasion, but at the same time he acknowledged him as a genius.

The girl was Morielle Kraden. She brought shame to him during the recruitment, but it was also an eye-opener to the fact that there were always someone better.

Arovin knew Morielle’s skill in a weaponless brawl. At the moment though, gone was her grace and skill. She was just throwing attacks wildly. Her expression was not the cold and composed one she used to wear. Instead, she was frustrated and impatient.

On the other hand, her opponent was taking it easy. He was composed and lax, dodging with minimal movements and countering with almost no effort. His attacks lacked strength on purpose as if teasing her. Whenever she fell down, it was because she lost balance on her own and not because of a counter he did.

Arovin could barely believe what he saw. He once thought of this girl as an impenetrable fortress of cold steel. He planned to bring her down in a glorious fight to repay the shame she had brought him. But now, she was far from the person he had fought against before. He believe that if he were to fight her now, he could easily beat her.

But what was the point of doing that? She as of now was not the one he wanted to defeat. In his eyes, she was a completely different person.

Once more, she stumbled and fell. She slowly stood back up to face her opponent. Her actions were dull and lifeless. It was easy to tell that she had no drive or willingness to fight. She was moving like a broken down machine.

“Enough,” said Keifre. “The way you are now, you can never be my opponent. Remember the thing we agreed upon before?”

Morielle did not answer and instead looked away.

“You agreed to be obedient until you are strong enough to beat me,” said Keifre. “I know you are in a rebellious age. I’ve been there before. But, listen to me. If you continue with your reckless actions, you will die. And that’s not the worst of it. You will cause the people around you to die meaninglessly, too. Do you understand?

“Of course you do, but you don’t want to agree. You deny what the adults say. You believe yourself to be right. I guess that’s what being a rebellious teen is all about. And that’s fine! That’s part of growing up. There’s nothing wrong with being against what others tell you, as long as you take responsibility for your actions, as long as you produce results, and as long as you learn from the mistakes you made along the way.

“Isn’t that right, kid?”

Arovin realized that the last line was meant for him. He stepped out of the doorway and into the deck. Morielle turned to look at the unexpected onlooker and realizing that it was him, she ignored him and looked away again.

“Here’s a deal,” said Keifre to her. “I’m changing the rules of the agreement. If you beat him, I’ll grant you the independence you so desired. Otherwise, you’ll be obedient.”

A sneer appeared on Morielle’s face as she said, “This loser? He already lost to me.”

If he hadn’t seen her weak appearance earlier, he would have been easily provoked by her words. Now though, he felt like she was just making an excuse not to fight. He kept a calm and composed expression and did not say anything to her provocation.

“That was then, this is now,” said Keifre. “If you’re scared of losing, just say it. No need to throw verbal abuses as bluff.”

Morielle grit her teeth and took a fighting stance. She did not need to say anything. Her actions was enough to say that she was willing to fight and disprove the man’s words.

“Well, sorry about suddenly putting you into this situation,” said Keifre to Arovin.

“It doesn’t matter,” the young man said. “I’ve been looking forward to a rematch and didn’t expect it to be so soon.” He left out the fact that he was slightly disappointed that his opponent may not be at her best at the moment.

Keifre stepped back to give the two space. Once Arovin had taken a stance and both seemed ready, he said, “Have a go at it anytime you want.”

He hadn’t finished half his sentence when the two moved.

Arovin found out that he was sorely mistaken. He initially thought that Morielle would still be performing badly, but it seemed like the fact that she had beaten him before and that her wish of independence was at stake had provoked her to give her all in this fight.

Her attacks were sharp and deadly. They were fast and accurate. Arovin thought that if he got hit, her fist would punch straight through his flesh. She was filled with killing intent.

He fell into the defensive. He could only dodge and parry her attacks, not daring to block them directly. She relied in her speed and pinpoint accuracy to exhaust him mentally and physically. Sooner or later, his defenses would be broken down by her barrage.

Arovin felt that it was strange. She was attacking continuously but she didn’t seem out of breath. It didn’t even look like she will be letting off any time soon. For a moment, he thought he was facing agaisnt a monster from the Overland.

If this continued, he would definitely lose, and that was something he would not accept. He should have learned some time ago that there was always someone better, but when he saw the weak Morielle earlier, he looked down on her. A self-deprecating smile appeared on his face.

A kick landed on his temple and he blacked out for a moment.

Wasn’t this what he wanted? Why was he bemoaning the fact that she wasn’t being weak during their fight? Shouldn’t he be overjoyed that he was having a rematch against her and she was giving her all in this fight?

He remembered their first fight. She was not giving her all at that time, and that was what he felt shame the most. He was defeated half-heartedly.

A kick on the opposite shoulder stopped him from falling down and broke his trance. There was a slight lull in the fight. He saw her standing a short distance away as if giving him some breathing room.

It seemed like she did not want the fight to end so easily, probably planning to show off to her adoptive father and completely prove him wrong. In the past, Arovin would have been mad at her actions. Instead, a smile appeared on his face.

She had made a huge mistake. She should have ended the fight then and there. It was a huge tactical blunder, and in war, it would cost the lives of many.

Arovin took a stance. This time, he resolved himself. He didn’t have her speed. He didn’t have her bestial stamina. He had something else, and that was what had pushed him all these years.

The fight once again began, and it would be a tragic one. In a fight like this, there were only two strategies that he could use. One was to retreat, but that was not an option.

The only viable one was to trade blow for blow. Of course, that was the ideal situation, but he could only land a glancing hit on her for every three or four she made on him. It didn’t take long for him to have to spit the collected blood in his mouth.

He gritted his teeth. He had not yet fully recovered from the mission and his entire body was screaming in pain. He wanted it to end quickly, but not by being knocked down. Instead, he wanted to win. He did not entertain the idea of losing for his pain to end.

Morielle’s injuries from the current brawl was minimal and did not effect her combat ability in the slightest. Instead, she felt annoyed at how she couldn’t move freely. Her actions could not smoothly flow as her momentum would stop every time her hits landed successfully. If it was dodged, she could easily connect another attack in a flowing movement making it more powerful. She couldn’t make it happen as her idiotic opponent suddenly decided to become a masochist.

She, too, wanted this meaningless fight to end. She saw him stumble and grabbed the opportunity. With her target defensless, she aimed a kick at his jaw. If this connected, he wouldn’t be able to stand back up and fight.

Arovin felt his legs give out and stumbled. It was a moment of weakness he knew she wouldn’t let go. He saw her launch a kick and he knew exactly where it was headed. There was nothing he could really do. In an attempt to regain his balance, his right foot stepped hard on the floor and landed on something wet and slippery.

He slipped slightly. His body lowered and leaned to the right. The kick intended for his jaw landed on his forehead and knocked his head back, but his body continued moving forward. He was in a very awkward position, but if somebody was high up in the air, they would see that he was smiling crazily.

His left arm hooked and grabbed the extended leg. His left hand grabbed on any cloth it could and pulled as hard as he could while his right arm swung blindly. All this happened while he was facing the sky.

His fist connected. He didn’t care where. He retracted his fist and threw it again at the same spot and he heard a groan. Once more, he threw it but hit nothing as they both lost balance.

In pain, he was unable to stand. He looked for Morielle and saw her get on her feet while clutching her left side. Apparently, he had hit her on the ribs, and judging from the way she was glaring at him and biting her lips, it must have been very painful.

Arovin laughed silently before passing out.

“Hmm…” Keifre rubbed his chin as he observed the result of the fight.

“It’s my win,” said Morielle.

“If you really think so,” said Keifre. “Well, you can do whatever you want. That was the agreement.”

He went over and picked Arovin up. Seeing the stained uniform, he groaned, “That was brand new.”