On the southern part of the eastern continent, there was an arena that was constructed of patches of wood. For those who knew this place, this place served as their entertainment.
The old man and the boy were among the crowds watching the battle inside the pit.
The boy was young, even the old man felt some pity for him but after a while, he changed his mind, the boy used a sword and shield, a totally self-taught warrior, watching his opponents and observing them in action he kept on learning, increasing his skills but what was the most impressive was that even though he was around the same age of Simon he was a bit more taller and the fact that he didn’t fight using brute force since it would be impossible for a normal child.
“See that Simon? You should learn from him,” the old man commented, they were watching the boy who's at Simon’s age fight someone a mile old from him.
The boy rolled down, the adult warrior literally tried to attack him after catching the boy still on the ground, it's easy to overpower the small boy.
“Idiot!!!” the boy screamed as he planted his sword and shield on the ground.
The boy didn’t need to use any strength, he just needed to hold the sword and shield firm, and the attack of the adult warrior slid down. The boy kicked the warrior’s feet making him slip down.
“Aargh!!” it totally looked like an accident but the warrior bled on his right shoulder.
…
“So am I going to fight that guy too?” Simon asked.
The boy was raring to go, like all the last 2 underground arenas, after seeing somebody fight he totally became excited. The old man liked that trait in the boy.
“How about tomorrow, the boy is losing gas,” the old man said and he was right, the boy has been fighting for 5 straight fights, so fighting against him right now when he is out of gas wouldn’t be so much of a challenge.
“And you are not allowed to break his shield,” the old man placed a condition for Simon. He had been doing this after the boy learned a bit of the sword.
<--->
Just behind the wooden pit, a boy sat there, trying to make all of his time worth it to recuperate.
Joshua was tired, he was sitting in one corner of the arena outside, finally, the 5 fights were complete. The master of the arena came to him.
“Here, you earn this,” the fat guy said.
“Its only 2 silvers… not even enough for food…” Joshua said.
“You still owe me a debt,” the fat master smiled.
“Shit…” Joshua said as he took the coins and put them in his pocket. The fat guy smirked and left.
Joshua stood up. He knew he was good at fighting, he lived as one of the serfs in the farmlands. He knew that he would be a farmer forever if he stayed there but this was just unfair. The fat guy and the lord of the farmlands tasked him with delivering some food back and forth and when he had a chance he fought in the arena.
The problem was that he didn’t know how to count nor knew the value of the fight he was providing. World’s like that but he had a determination on his mind.
“Boy… how about a meal,” an old man approached him handing over something that was on some kind of leaf. It was a piece of sandwich.
Joshua stared, the old man had a scary look but he was not intimidated at all “Huh?” the boy was surprised but he would not turn down a free meal. “Thanks,” He took the sandwich that was inside a leaflet. He began gnawing it down.
“If you make it a good fight tomorrow… you will get you out of here”, the old man said.
“Who are you old man” Joshua asked. A familiarity began booming inside his heart, his blood was telling him something.
“No one… sleep well…” the old man then left Joshua.
…
The sandwich was really good though the bread was a bit hard, the meat was still fresh.
His father told him plenty of times before that they come from a line of fallen nobles, a great one at that. He was told that he should do everything in his power to restore their house.
Then he got separated from his parents when they were supposed to go to the farm lands to work as farmers there, it was only him that made it.
But of course that’s not why he was here, he was here because he didn’t want to farm… world is calling him for another thing. He was just 6 and he already knew what he wanted.
The boy staring at nothing began to fall asleep.
<--->
The next day.
Joshua started early, stretching and readying his weapons. His shield was big but his sword was some kind of short sword rather than a proper sword.
“Joshua!!! Come now!!” the master of the underground arena called to him.
Joshua thought it was strange… wasn’t it a bit early? Well, he didn’t have any say on this, another day to complete 5 battles.
He walks to the back entrance of the pit and the master of the arena smiles at him. “Don’t you dare lose… ” the fat guy warned him.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Unless a really good warrior he couldn’t outwit comes then it won’t be a problem. He would stoop as low as he could, the opponent wouldn’t mind it since he was a kid.
In a few moments he finds himself back in the pit again… but what surprises him is his next opponent, it was a boy, a bit smaller than him.
‘Is this a joke?’ Joshua thought, but it would be an easy win so he didn’t say it.
He looked around the pit, there weren’t that many spectators which was weird because the fat guy would only call him if there was enough crowd.
“A kid versus a kid!!! Fight!!” there was a mocking tone to the umpire.
The boy was blind… his eyes were closed. Joshua smiled… at least he would be gentle, he thought and he started walking closer to the boy. The boy revealed his weapon which was a wooden stick, it was hanging behind the boy’s back. Joshua raised his shield in caution.
The boy suddenly stepped and landed a strike on his shield.
“Urgh!!!” Joshua used his knees to receive such a heavy blow, heavier than a normal adult’s attack.
Although he received the attack that backed him down he kept an eye on the boy and as soon as the boy pulled back the stick Joshua immediately rolled to the right to flank an attack.
The boy did some footwork and Joshua missed again.
“…” Joshua admitted now, the boy was good, well it wouldn’t make sense why he was here, that footwork though, he would remember it.
“Boy… watch his shield!!” an old man’s voice coming from the crowd, it was very familiar but Joshua was too busy thinking of his next move that he didn’t bother thinking. He finally noticed that the boy’s face changed, it seemed that the voice had some kind of effect on him.
Joshua tried again and attacked closer looking to shield bash the boy but the boy used the point of the stick for him to not initiate the shield bash, the crowd that was watching was quite surprised and amazed by the stunt.
The tip of the wooden sword stopped Joshua from opening his shield, Joshua immediately spun inward using his other hand to land an attack, the boy reacted but it was a feint and Joshua continued with his shield bash.
“Feint” the boy muttered but he caught the shield supporting the blow by jumping and using his arms to stave it off, it created a distance between the 2, and the boy immediately rushed an attack as soon as he landed on the ground. Joshua didn’t have a chance to move, the boy was already cutting an inch close to him.
From his stance, it was a horizontal sweep to the left but what he received was a hit on the right. ‘He used the stance as a feint’ Joshua thought, the boy was the same as him, they absorbed new things and grew while they fought.
Joshua immediately angled his shield to make the wooden stick slide, he was sure that that attack was much lighter than the first one but he still got into his knees to make the the range of the boy closer.
Joshua launched a trust attack twice but the boy used his footwork to dodge the attack. The boy instantly stepped back twice and this created another distance.
Joshua stood up… the boy didn’t attack, actually, the boy was smiling at him.
“You… are you holding back against me?” Joshua asked.
The boy nodded… “Old man’s words are rules… can’t hurt you,” Simon answered this as a matter of fact then went into stance again.
“I’m not holding back though,” Joshua said then he raised his shield and started rushing with no doubts at all… when they were on range the 2 started swinging at each other.
…
“Look at them… going at each other’s throat,” The old man was quite impressed with the fight, the crowd that was there was cheering for the fight but the old man was sure they couldn’t hear them.
But it had to end… although the 2 were dancing in a fight they were burning up gas and the advantageous one would come out. Of course, it was the boy, Simon could fight as intensely as possible for almost a whole day and would still train his magic through the ‘Flow Training’ afterward until he almost passed out enough to go into a bed.
‘How’re you going to win?’ the old man thought not because he was hoping that Joshua would lose, but rather because he wanted the 2 of them to push off their limits.
…
Joshua was losing gas, and the boy just kept on doing the fancy footwork, Joshua started doing the same footwork, and just after a few seconds of it he stopped and stood firm… he couldn’t sustain it, how does this small boy do it?
He should finish it before his strength ran out…
His shield started glowing in a bit. He was feeling something else… it was magic… he had done this before last year when he and his family were attacked by monsters but he didn’t know how to use it… but now he felt that he could somewhat use it.
Rather than doing the fancy footwork, he started parrying with his shield, receiving blow by blow. The boy was starting to find an opening but operating on wider angles was much more harder than just parrying on smaller angles.
The shield was getting heavier but not literally, it was getting filled with magic… potentially.
Joshua surprised Simon by using his short sword to parry the attack, and then all he had to do was make sure that Simon got hit with his shield. To Joshua's surprise, it was really hard to parry but he absorbed it and spun while his shield aimed at Simon's vulnerable part.
“Oof!!!” Simon grunted as he flew away even almost breaking the walls of the underground arena pit. Simon fell down like a collapsed doll with his face on the ground. The boy’s face couldn’t be seen but he was not moving anymore.
“Our champion is still the winner!!! Joshua Varus wins!!!” the umpire declared.
Joshua knelt down, he was experiencing a loss of magic for the first time, and his head was on an ache. Joshua suddenly shouted a scream of glory.
‘Isn’t that great?’ the old man said he was the only one who was clapping his hands.
<--->
A few minutes later the old man approached the fat arena master.
“You lost… you are going to have to pay me 3 gold for the extra trouble you will cost me,” the arena master said and the old man complied.
“Then you free the child and pay him right?” the old man said, there was some kind of threat in those words, especially the last part.
The fat guy knew in his guts and he was sure he would be in deep shit if he broke the promise. “Of course, I would pay him his winnings,” The fat guy had no choice but to comply too.
The old man placed 3 large gold coins on the table near the fat guy. He gazed at the faces of his bodyguards smiling fiercely, a curved lips that intimidated them.
The fat man froze… The old man then left with no words.
<--->
He was finally out of the pit, money in his pocket, and he was free. But he never realized how vast and daunting the road ahead would be.
Joshua found it strange. He had been given thirteen gold coins in a small bag. “You can go now, you don’t owe me anything,” the fat man had said. Yet, they had taken his shield and short sword—those very weapons were why he owed the man in the first place. The interest on that debt was what he had been paying off all this time.
Joshua set his eyes on the road, it felt scary… freedom that was. He looked around, maybe he could go to the central continent with the gold in hand. Suddenly the old man walked into him.
“13 pieces of gold is a lot of money, you could buy land here in the frontiers,” the old man said, he was holding some bag, it seemed that he brought something from the merchant stall near the arena.
“How’d you know it's 13 pieces of gold?… I mean, old man can you teach me? I could give you some,” Joshua was not an idiot, he could tell that the old man did help him in some way. Since he didn’t know anything about the world he had to be thick-skinned.
“How about eating with us, we can talk about it at a campfire,” the old man said.
The 2 started walking northwards, for some reason, Joshua felt that the old man really did want to help him, a feeling in his blood that said he could trust him.
…
“Old man!!” and the same kid he fought earlier was there, of course, they were together, that was the face Joshua was making.
“Simon, I’ve brought some fresh food let’s cook it!!!” the old man said.
It was just only past lunchtime and the spot where they were was not that far, “You are okay?” Joshua asked Simon and Simon just nodded.
“I’m okay but I’m hungry!!” the boy said and the small campfire was ready to be lit, it seemed that Simon was just waiting for the old man.